Partnering major Estonian banks
Estonian leading mobile operator EMT (part of TeliaSonera) is launching a pilot project “Bank Payment Card in Mobile” in cooperation with Estonian leading banks Danske Bank, Nordea Pank, SEB Pank, Swedbank and retail group Tallinna Kaubamaja (Tallinna Kaubamaja, Selver). The pilot project will test a prototype of the Estonian NFC Mobile Wallet service named “My Wallet”.
The pilot project will test a service that allows a mobile phone to be used as a regular bank card. In order to pay for goods, the user, instead of inserting the card to the terminal, must lightly touch the terminal with the phone. Successful transaction is confirmed with a signal tone. The service enables setting a limit on purchase amount that does not require entering a PIN code.
The pilot test group includes 150 people selected by the partners of the pilot project, who will test the new payment option at selected stores and several cafes.
According to the pilot project manager Kuno Peek, this is a rather unique international cooperation project, as in addition to international partnership, 90% of Estonian banking sector is involved in the testing of the secure mobile payment concept that would meet the international standards. “This kind of a joint project is a clear sign of EMT’s and Estonian banks’ innovation and cooperation capability to develop attractive, convenient and secure future services for end users, “ Kuno Peek said.
The new payment service is highly secure. All mobile bank cards are located on the NFC SIM card’s secure element, where the security level is equal to bank’s chip card technology. As today, the security of the service is mainly determined by how securely users treat their PIN codes.
The NFC pilot project will run for three months. After the pilot, results will been analyzed and a decision will be made on the future of the service.
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