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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

The next major Android upgrade, code-named Android L, includes changes to the way host-card emulation handles default applications for payment, according to a developer preview.

NFC Times Exclusive: Despite the interest in host-card emulation in North America and, to some extent, Europe grabbing the spotlight, there is a good chance that banks and other issuers in Asia-Pacific could generally commercialize the technology first, sources told NFC Times.

Capital One Financial’s vice president of digital commerce has spelled out publicly for the first time why the large U.S. credit card issuer dropped its support for the Isis Wallet and also revealed the bank’s early role with MasterCard Worldwide in developing host-card emulation for payments.

The move to standardize tokens by the major payment networks has broad implications for how mobile commerce, including NFC payments, will be rolled out.

France-based vendor Gemalto Thursday confirmed its growth projections for 2014 and its longer-term forecast for 2017, despite the recent announcements of support for host-card emulation by Visa and MasterCard.

While continuing to support their applications on secure elements in NFC phones, Visa and MasterCard Worldwide confirmed their firm support for host-card emulation in the past week, as they continue to fast-track new HCE specifications to the market.

The major payments schemes have kept a low profile in their work on host-card emulation, and they have been quietly drafting specifications to standardize the technology for use with their NFC-mobile payments applications, NFC Times has learned.

NFC Times Exclusive: As 2014 unfolds, the NFC ecosystem appears as unsettled as ever, with embedded secure chips expected to compete with NFC SIMs in several markets to store applications, and Google throwing its weight behind an alternative that could eventually enable service providers to avoid secure elements altogether.

NFC Times Special Report, Part two:
Interest continues to run high in host-card emulation since Google announced it would support the technology in its new version of Android, but with few if any public pilots and no waivers or certifications yet granted by the major payment schemes, the technology has some maturing to do. 

NFC Times Special Report: In a move with potentially far-reaching implications for the NFC industry, Google has built support for host-card emulation into its new Android operating system, which could enable payments and other “secure” applications without a secure element.