MasterCard Canada Completes Mobile Payment Trial
MasterCard Canada, in partnership with Citi Cards Canada and Bell Mobility, has completed the first near-field communications (NFC) trial of Mobile PayPass in Canada. The four month long closed trial allowed participants to use Bell Mobility's wireless network to make purchases using their mobile device at MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations across Canada.
"This mobile payment trial is one of the latest in a series of MasterCard global payment trials," says Scott Lapstra, Vice President, Market Development, MasterCard Canada. "The completion of this trial provides us with Canadian-specific data that will help prepare for the potential roll-out of mobile payment services in the future."
"As one of the first issuers to offer PayPass-enabled cards in Canada, we have always worked with MasterCard to find new, convenient payment solutions for consumers," says Richard McLaughlin, Chief Marketing Officer, Citi Cards Canada. "We believe that mobile payment has strong potential to become part of Canada's future payment landscape."
"Our objective is to achieve a common gateway and standardized consumer experience for mobile payments," said Almis Ledas, Vice President of Corporate Development at Bell Mobility. "This successful trial underlined both the security and the convenience of mobile payments."
MasterCard continues to lead the global payments industry in creating and introducing new and advanced payment technologies by combining electronic payments with convenience. The trial took place at Bell Mobility's Creekbank office in Ontario and approximately 75 employees from Bell, Citi Cards and MasterCard participated. Trial participants proved that mobile payments are easy, fast and secure. The average transaction amount during the trial was just under $20, which is ideal for merchants in high-volume, small-ticket purchase businesses.
The PayPass payment application is stored inside the NFC-capable mobile phone's built-in "secure area". Users have individual control of the payment application in the phone's secure area. The PayPass payment application on these phones can also be password protected so that a lost or stolen handset cannot be used to make payments.
Whether consumers are using a PayPass enabled mobile phone or credit card, PayPass truly puts the cardholder in control - the phone or card never leaves your hand when making a payment, receipts help keep track of spending and purchases are protected by zero liability.
What is the security feature on this? Is it simply a password? Do they store card information on the phone in the 'secure' area of the phone? Seems that they need to have a bit of a different solution to ensure security. Thoughts?
rtb
Posted by: rtb | April 17, 2009 at 06:47 AM