Tag: contactless mobile payments

First contactless mobile payments in India to be launched by ICICI Bank

The financial institution claims that it has chosen NFC technology in order to enhance transaction security.

ICICI Bank has recently announced that it will be offering the first contactless mobile payments service in India, after having looked into the various options and decided that NFC technology is the best way to keep transaction data safe throughout the process.

This will make it possible for consumers with one of their credit or debit cards to pay using a smartphone.

Of course, this will require that consumers who want to use the contactless mobile payments will need to shop at a store or restaurant with an NFC reader terminal. At the moment, they are in the vast minority in India. Still, the bank has decided that this is the best way to ensure that consumers keep their sensitive data safe throughout the transaction process, which is what drove them to make this choice. Users of the bank’s Pockets app and who have the right type of device will be eligible to use this service.

This represents the first time that Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology is used for contactless mobile payments in India.

ICICI Bank - Contactless Mobile PaymentsThe HCE tech makes it possible for consumers to be able to use their smartphones as a kind of virtual card so that payments can be made without having to bring the actual plastic credit and banking cards into the shop. The cards compatible with this service are those that have been issued by ICICI Bank, including debit, Visa and MasterCard.

The virtual credit and debit card data is stored in the secure cloud server from the bank. Just as the service requires a merchant’s point of sale to include an NFC reader, it also means that shoppers who want to use these mobile payments will also need to have NFC technology enabled phones. Most smartphones in India do not have this tech, at the moment, which means that there will likely be quite a limited user base upon the initial launch of this service.

Contactless mobile payments using NFC technology are growing in popularity among smartphone wallet companies around the world, including tech, credit card and other financial giants. Among the most well known are Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Mobile commerce trends to drive future NFC market growth

An NFC market forecasts report for 2022 has been developed by ReportsnReports.

The online market research firm’s forecasts report explains how the NFC (near field communication) market, is presently experiencing speedy growth in all its areas and that its success is urged on by the ever expanding trend of mobile commerce.

The NFC technology industry is expanding worldwide.

According to the report, the suggested global NFC market is anticipated to reach US $16.25 billion by 2022, growing at 8.83 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Furthermore, it is suggested that America has the greatest market potential for the near field communication ecosystem.

The report also said that NFC is a highly active market and has a lot of potential across many industry areas. NFC products have experienced consistent development right from the start. The use of the technology can lead to many cost-effective benefits, such as systems and products that have a longer lifespan and are more reliable.

Some of the top features of NFC technology that the report notes include:

• Better properties that make it capable of holding up against harsh environmental conditions.
• A high-rate of communication with other devices that are NFC enabled.
• A longer life, which makes it best suited for applications that involve ticketing, data sharing, booking and payments.

NFC technology is developing at a high rate and not just in the mobile commerce sector.

NFC Technology  - Mobile Commerce Near field communications is gaining ground in the overall market. One of the primary reasons for this is this tech requires less power compared to other forms of wireless technologies. Many products have commercialized the use of NFC, which typically functions in three modes: peer-to-peer, reader emulation, and card emulation. The technology also has the advantage of being compatible with contactless card infrastructure that already exists, which gives consumers the ability to use one device across more than one system.

The NFC market consists of three major areas that include products, geography, and applications and each of these areas has further sub divisions. For instance, the product category has been divided into tags, IC/chips, readers, covers, SIM cards, and micro SD cards. The geography area is split into Europe, Americas, ROW, and APAC. Finally, the application category is broken down into transportation, booking, data sharing, service, booking, payment, tag, and access control healthcare apps.

That being said, in terms of value, of all the different NFC divisions, payment applications have achieved the biggest market share for 2013, in which mobile commerce played a role.