Although Banks are Looking Keenly at HCE, NFC SIM Not Dead Yet

NFC Times Exclusive: While banks gearing up for NFC launches are keenly interested in host-card emulation, as this week’s NFC Times story about planned NFC launches in France notes, a number of banks in France and elsewhere do not plan to wait until HCE is mature enough for commercial rollouts.

They will launch on NFC SIMs. And despite their attention-grabbing support for HCE, announced in February, Visa and MasterCard Worldwide continue to support secure elements and will even subsidize TSM and SIM rental fees in some countries or regions, such as Central Europe, NFC Times has learned.

To be sure, some, if not most, of the same banks planning to put their applications on NFC SIMs could move to HCE later. 

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Among Topics Covered: 

  • Plans by banks to push ahead with SIM-based NFC, deeming host-card emulation not yet mature
  • Plans by MasterCard to subsidize certain TSM and SIM rental costs in certain Central and Eastern European countries
  • SIM-rental fees in Europe
  • Requirements by Isis and other providers of secure-element-based wallets to make revisions for HCE
  • Development work required by telcos, OEMs and Google to make SIM-based wallets work smoothly on HCE phones
  • Briefing papers by GSMA, SIMalliance
  • Views in France on the inevitability of HCE 

Among companies and organizations mentioned:

MasterCard Worldwide

Visa
Trevica
Orange
Isis
GSMA

SIMalliance
BNP Paribas
Crédit Mutuel-CIC
La Banque Postale
Société Générale 

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