ANZ Bank New Zealand is to add NFC mobile payments to its popular goMoney mobile banking app later this year. The goMoney Wallet feature will be available to 120,000 customers with Android NFC phones and uses host card emulation, “removing the need for a SIM card upgrade”.

ANZ is using  Bell ID’s Secure Element in the Cloud software platform to deliver the HCE-based service.

The solution manages keys, certificates and credentials in a secure remote environment rather than in the mobile device, Bell ID says, “providing application issuers with the independence and control to manage their credentials, without the need for third party involvement.”

“The mobile wallet is the next evolution in payments, enabling customers to use smartphones to make everyday credit or debit card purchases,” Liz Maguire, ANZ’s head of digital channels and transformation, explains. “Bell ID’s platform gave us all of the functionality we needed to bring this upgrade to market and gives us the option for further development down the line.”

Rival banks ASB and BNZ are piloting SIM-based NFC payments with Semble, a joint venture between New Zealand’s carriers and the country’s Paymark payments network, while Westpac began testing HCE-based mobile payments in July 2014.