Canada: Largest Bank, RBC, and major Telco Bell Plan NFC Commercial Launch

Canada’s largest bank and one of its three major mobile operators announced plans in May to commercially launch NFC payments by the end of the year, following a trial this summer. The Royal Bank of Canada, or RBC, and Bell Mobility plan to launch the SIM-based NFC payments service with debit and credit cards on up to five BlackBerry NFC phones and a range of Android devices from Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG Electronics and others. RBC said NFC will be the “first piece of a broad RBC mobile-commerce solution rolling out to clients this year,” including nonpayment services. The mobile-payments service will be part of the bank’s existing mobile-banking app and will work with the bank’s peer-to-peer payments service, which will enable RBC customers to send money to any individual or business in Canada.