HSBC Launches Mobile Phone Payments Pilot
 The six-month pilot tests the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile phones to make contactless credit card purchases. More than 200 HSBC employees in New York, Chicago and several other large U.S. cities used a simple, "over-the-air" (OTA) personalization process to securely load their HSBC credit card data onto their mobile phones.
"Putting payment capability into mobile phones is our latest effort to employ innovative technology in our credit card business," said Walter Menezes, chief executive of HSBC Card Services. HSBC introduced contactless debit cards to its bank customers in late 2005 and contactless credit cards in 2006.
The new phones feature NFC technology, which enables users to make contactless purchases at any of the approximately 36,000 merchant locations around the world that accept PayPass, including 7-Eleven stores, McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Box, CVS, Duane Reade, Sheetz and Regal Entertainment Group. PayPass is also now accepted in numerous baseball and football stadiums as its quick transaction time allows sports fans to spend less time in line and more time enjoying the game. Users simply tap their PayPass-enabled phone, card, or device on the PayPass reader at participating merchants and they are on their way.
"MasterCard is excited about the future of mobile phone payments, particularly as today's consumers rely increasingly on their mobile phones for activities other than calls," said Art Kranzley, executive vice president and group executive, Advanced Payments, MasterCard Worldwide.
NFC is a short-range proximity technology that uses radio frequency (RF) to enable secure, contactless communication between two devices. Contactless payment is only one of the many data-transfer applications that NFC enables, which makes it an attractive technology for carriers looking to increase handset utility for consumers.
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