MasterCard Canada experiments with NFC
In a major step toward bringing contactless payments via mobile phones to the Canadian market, MasterCard Canada will test NFC-enabled phones with MasterCard PayPass capability on Bell Mobility’s wireless network. The four-month closed trial will test secure over-the-air (OTA) provisioning of payment card credentials and the security of transactions made using mobile phones.
During the trial, PayPass-enabled phones will be used to make purchases at any merchant location in Canada that accepts MasterCard PayPass, by tapping the phone against a point-of-sale payment terminal.
The security being tested is multi-level. The PayPass payment application is stored inside the mobile phone’s built-in secure area. Users have individual control of the payment application in the phone’s secure area, and the payment application can also be password protected so that a lost or stolen handset cannot be used to make payments.
Additionally, the PayPass system itself is supported by multi-level security protections including the encryption of PayPass RF transaction transmission and the security protections of the MasterCard payment system. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/nfcnews-4.gif)