6947196781_9d9fbf2def_z (1)

Mobey Forum Issues White Paper On Host Card Emulation

November 19, 2024         By: Athanasios Koufis

Mobey Forum, a global association for financial institutions, has issued a white paper containing the results of a survey on host card emulation that was carried out in September 2014.

Respondents were comprised of Mobey Forum member banks and financial institutions. The survey reflects the industry’s attitude toward the implementation of host card emulation (HCE).

It appears that approximately 70 percent of members are interested in outsourcing support for HCE solutions to a third-party. HCE is an extension of NFC (Near Field Communication), that aims to provide payment capabilities for mobile devices that don’t have a secure element where credentials are stored, through software means.

Financial institutions may choose to support traditional NFC payments with secure elements, others may move towards HCE, while others still may choose to support a mixture of the two.

Security in regards to HCE is critical in choosing a third-party provider. Mobey Forum states that when choosing a third-party provider, the security of the HCE solution, whether it’s a cloud-based solution or one that is based on tokenization each come with risks and benefits.

Kristian Thure Sørensen, a member of the Mobey Forum HCE Working Group and Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy at NETS believes that HCE will play a part in boosting the lethargic NFC payments industry, as it resolves some of the major complexities including device and hardware support, along with an improvement in safeguarding consumers through integrated security (e.g., tokenization and cloud-based transactions).