MasterCard Approves Gemalto's NFC Mobile Payment Technology

MasterCard this week certified Gemalto's mobile payment application for its PayPass NFC contactless mobile payment scheme. Gemalto's software stores security PINs and card information, allows wireless account management, and enables mobile transactions. The application is installed on Gemalto's Universal Integrated Circuit Card smartcards, which are compliant with 3G GSM networks. This means Gemalto can now send MasterCard cardholder credentials (account number, PIN number, etc.) wirelessly to the SIM cards embedded in mobile phones, thus enabling contactless payments at merchant terminals that take MasterCard PayPass. Gemalto's website indicates that in the future, its technology will work with removable memory cards, which has been Visa's approach in working with DeviceFidelity's microSD cards.

MasterCard says Gemalto's technology complies with its Mobile MasterCard PayPass M/Chip 4 payment specification. Gemalto's software application embeds the Trusted Service Management interface for PayPass, which enables mobile account issuance and over-the-air management. The application lets consumers manage payments, check transaction history and define their mobile Personal Identification Number through their phone. The mobile PIN is a new cardholder verification method used to secure operations such as account top-up from the mobile phone.

The Gemalto mobile NFC payment application can be configured to cover all card portfolios including debit, credit and prepaid. In the latter case, the software application enables consumers to top-up their prepaid accounts directly from their mobile phone.