NFC Times Exclusive: RBC Secure Cloud Explained:
As one of the first commercial launches of cloud-based open-loop payments using NFC, observers will be watching closely how well Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC Secure Cloud service does in the market.
Canada’s largest bank launched the service two weeks ago, enabling customers to load their RBC-issued Visa credit cards and Interac debit cards into its RBC Wallet.
The service is anchored to NFC SIM cards running in two high-profile Samsung NFC phones, the Galaxy S4 and older Galaxy S III. But unlike conventional NFC payments services that have launched in these and other NFC phones, RBC Secure Cloud puts the full payment applets on the bank’s servers, while loading only one small applet, along with tokens, on the SIM.
This applet, which it has dubbed “Olive Branch,” can “virtualize” any open-loop payment card, as well as potentially authenticating the user for loyalty cards, offers, even insurance applications, said the bank.
“You’ll never, ever, ever have to download more than one little, tiny, 5K applet,” Eddy Ortiz, director of digital strategy for RBC told NFC Times. “That will emulate, whether it’s Visa and MasterCard. That will also supply the security for everything else, for your loyalty, for your gift card.”
Contrary to earlier reports, RBC Secure Cloud does not support host-card emulation, though Ortiz says RBC Secure Cloud is “95% there for HCE.” The missing piece is a key one, however, the one on the phone, which is what HCE is about.
HCE enables communication to be routed from the contactless or NFC card terminal to the phone’s apps running on the processor, or host CPU. The NFC radio chip routes the communication to the processor instead of to a secure element, which is the standard procedure now.
From the processor, the communication could go to the cloud or other location to get the payment card credentials. HCE–at least as defined by Google for its new Android operating system, KitKat–doesn’t specify where it should go.
RBC, in fact, has been “doing work around HCE for many years,” said Ortiz. But the technology wasn’t available on enough handsets to make it worthwhile to launch commercially.
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Graphics:
• Diagram: high-level view of RBC Secure Cloud
Among Topics Covered:
• Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC Secure Cloud system explained
• Details of hybrid solution combining cloud and NFC SIMs
• RBC's strategy for mobile payments
•.Visa approach to RBC project and behind-the-scenes activity regarding HCE
• Vendors named for RBC Secure Cloud project
• Hotspots for HCE according to one vendor
• Details of closed-loop HCE-enabled mobile-payments service launched by Tim Hortons
Among sources quoted:
• Linda Mantia, EVP, cards and payments solutions, RBC
• Eddy Ortiz, director, digital strategy, RBC
• Martin Cox, head of sales, Bell ID
• Sanjay Malhotra, CTO, Clearbridge Mobile
Among companies and organizations mentioned:
Royal Bank of Canada, RBC
Visa
MasterCard
Bell Mobility
Rogers Wireless
Telus Mobility
Bell ID
Tim Hortons
Clearbridge Mobile
Bankinter
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