Tag: canada mobile payments

The application from the Royal Bank of Canada now supports host card emulation to broaden usage capabilities.

The mobile payments app from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has now announced the addition of support for host card emulation (HCE), in a move that it says will give Canadians the ability to use Android based smartphones to complete purchase transactions without having to worry about having the right type of SIM card or being on the correct network.

The bank has built on its existing platform, called the RBC Secure Cloud to encourage smartphone payments use.

According to RBC, this change to its app is “allowing Canadians to pay with most Android mobile phones without worrying about being on the right mobile network or having the right SIM card.” The service will give customers with virtually any Android smartphone that is NFC technology enabled the opportunity to make mobile payments at merchants equipped with Interact Flash contactless POS terminals. The smartphones will function as an alternative to using a traditional debit card.

This new mobile payments technology will be piloted over the winter months by employees of RBC.

They will be using a number of different mobile networks and types of Android device, said the bank. This trial will not yet be testing the support for MasterCard, Visa, and other types of credit card, and other types of value added service, though the bank did confirm that those would be coming “shortly.”

The RBC executive vice president for digital, payments and cards, Linda Mantia, stated that “We are committed to providing our clients with the most innovative, convenient and secure solutions to pay how they want, when they want — HCE is a critical step.” She also added that through the use of HCE, the smartphone based payments by way of the RBC Secure Cloud become “even easier to use”.

The bank first started developing its mobile payments app back in 2009, and it has gone through a number of different evolutions and additions. This addition of HCE is only the latest move by the bank, which is among the players that are attempting to act the most quickly in order to grab hold of the largest proportion of the Canadian smartphone transaction market.

Mobile commerce is experiencing lackluster growth throughout Canada

Mobile payments may experience lackluster growth in Canada. A new study from GfK, a global market research firm, shows that Canadians are somewhat apprehensive when it comes to using a smartphone to make a payment. While Canadians have developed a reputation for being early adopters of new technology, they are not convinced that mobile commerce is a good solution for shopping or as secure as it should be. Notably, security is one of the biggest issues that consumers in Canada are concerned about.

Study shows that security concerns are a major issue for Canadians interested in mobile commerce

According to the GfK study, Canadians consider security to be a major issue when it comes to mobile payments. Many mobile commerce services have become available in Canada, but relatively few of them have proven that they are capable of ensuring the safety of consumer financial information. Some high-profile cyber attacks in the United States and Canada have also called into question whether or not mobile commerce services are safe.

Canadian consumers are more interested in traditional forms of commerce due to extensive experience and the availability of familiar services

The study also notes that Canadians may not be interested in mobile payments because they already have plenty of ways to pay for products in stores. ATM transactions are significantly larger in Canada than they are elsewhere and the country’s ATM and debit card structure is well designed to meet the needs of consumers. In order for mobile commerce to grow in Canada, consumers would have to train themselves in new ways to purchase products and break old habits concerning physical currencies and payment cards.

Retailers are revising their mobile focus and putting more effort on providing consumers with convenient services

Some large retail organizations have been making moves to establish a foothold in the mobile commerce space, but have found relatively little support among consumers. As such, retailers have begun to pull back their mobile initiatives, focusing more on traditional forms of commerce and giving consumers access to services they may be more comfortable with.