NFC Times Exclusive: Westpac New Zealand’s product chief told NFC Times he believes host-card emulation will reduce costs and increase flexibility, while ensuring the bank can use its own branded wallet.
The bank, which recently launched a small HCE pilot using a MasterCard PayPass application, plans to launch commercially during the first quarter of next year. While Shane Howell, chief product officer for Westpac’s New Zealand operation, said the bank hasn’t ruled out also putting its payment application on secure elements “over the long term,” it will first try out HCE.
“We definitely want to give this road a bit of a run to see what kind of adoption we can get,” Howell told NFC Times. “One thing our customers keep telling us when we research this argument is that they want the digital wallet from their main financial institution, not from a third party. It simplifies the offering for customers, but it simplifies the back-end and processes for the bank, as well.”
