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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive – Two more Polish banks plan to launch mobile payments using host card emulation technology, NFC Times has learned, adding to a growing list of mobile payments services in Poland, which saw the launch of its first “Pays” service last week with the introduction of Android Pay.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Google has expanded its mobile payments service into a sixth market, Poland, targeting the country’s high penetration of contactless point-of-sale terminals. In-app payments will follow, according to the search giant.

NFC Times Exclusive – The high penetration of contactless point-of-sale terminals and high use of contactless bank cards in Poland has spurred the launch of HCE mobile wallets by some Polish banks, but use does not appear to be taking off yet–at least if one bank’s project is any guide.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – While Poland has among the highest concentrations of contactless point-of-sale terminals globally, NFC mobile payments has not yet taken off.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – MasterCard’s Poland-based payment transaction processor, Trevica, has licensed host card emulation technology from Turkey-based Cardtek in order to provide a managed HCE service to banks it serves in Europe.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Contactless payments in Europe, almost exclusively from cards, increased by more than 170% in the fourth quarter of 2014, MasterCard Europe has announced, and the payment network cited NFC payments projects in Europe as a positive sign, while promoting the prospect for host-card emulation-based launches.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – With its high penetration of contactless POS terminals and strong use of contactless cards, payment networks, banks and telcos have seen Poland as a t

While the UK’s top UK contactless issuer, Barclays, and its credit card arm, Barclaycard, predict a doubling of contactless transactions this year, numbers remain relatively small, with even the most active users tapping just over four times a month, a spokesman for the issuer confirmed to NFC Times.

Consumers in Europe did 19 million transactions with Visa-branded contactless bank cards in March, up by nearly 50% from December, announced Visa Europe Tuesday, which predicts monthly transactions will increase to 52 million by the end of 2013.

T-Mobile Poland confirmed it had signed up 5,500 “users” for its NFC-enabled wallet as of early January, a little more than two months after launching the service.