GoMoney Wallet with NFC payments on Android phones has been announced for release later this year by ANZ in New Zealand, but the ANZ Bank has advised Ausdroid that they also intend to release it here in Australia.
The ANZ Bank has been testing NFC based payments for the last couple of years, but is now very close to a public launch. How close? ANZ intends to launch in July. The new GoMoney app will utilise Host Card Emulation (HCE) to facilitate NFC payments for Debit, as well as Credit Card payments.
Host Card Emulation, is a feature included by Google in Android 4.4 in 2013, which allows for the NFC chip to be used, without the requirement to host sensitive data in the Secure Element within the card.
The use of HCE to make the NFC transaction obviously removes the need for a sticker or seperate case, and paired with the ANZ GoMoney app and strong encryption, means your transaction will be secure.
The ANZ Bank in New Zealand has released a quick video on GoMoney Wallet
Contactless payments are quite well established in Australia, with over 100,000 contactless enabled terminals available at retailers across Australia. Australians have embraced contactless payments, which allow users to simply tap their credit card and instantly purchase goods up to $100, and Westpac bank last year forecast that $3 billion in contactless transactions will be made in 2015.
Infrastructure provider Cuscal has been helping other banks such as People’s Choice Credit Union and CUA with their NFC based payments since mid-2014, edging out the ‘Big Four’ banks in Australia in the race to provide NFC payments for their customers using Host Card Emulation.
With the launch of ANZ GoMoney with NFC, ANZ will be the second of the ‘Big Four’ Australian banks to launch NFC payments for their platform.
The Commonwealth Bank launched their Tap & Pay solution earlier this month; though the Commonwealth Bank has yet to enable Credit Card payments on their solution.
The other banks in the ‘Big four’: Westpac and National Australia Bank, are also looking at NFC and we spoke to them as well as St George to find out what their plans are for NFC payments and if they are looking at moving to a HCE solution.
A Westpac representative advised :
We continue to investigate HCE opportunities to expand to other Android handsets and have a solution currently in production testing. Current market solutions require the phone to be unlocked, the application launched and a PIN number entered for every transaction. When we are able to replicate an experience in mobile banking that is as easy and convenient as a traditional plastic contactless transaction, we will launch to customers.
For customers who are without a wallet, we have Mobile Get Cash which allows all Android and IOS customers to access cash from an ATM without a debit card.
Westpac also offers NFC based payments on a handset-by-handset basis, with a number of Samsung Galaxy handsets supported. The current range includes the Galaxy S4, S5, S5 Mini, Note 3, 4 and Note Edge as well as the Galaxy Alpha.
We contacted the National Australia Bank for comment on their plans for NFC payments and a NAB Spokesperson advised:
Our team is exploring the introduction of different payment solutions for customers, and will have a more specific update for customers soon.
When asked about their plans, a St George representative advised that St.George plans to support near-field communications (NFC) payments in the near future, but couldn’t advise whether this would be a HCE based solution.
The NFC payments landscape on mobile is changing rapidly. We’re seeing new apps and services opening their doors from existing and new institutions, but what we really want to see if more vendors embracing Google’s support for Host Card Emulation so that customers don’t need to purchase additional NFC stickers to support functionality that’s built into their hardware. With KitKat (and its HCE support) now over a year old, we’re expecting to see a lot more projects supporting HCE technology in the coming months.
