Canadian Telco, Banks Plan Separate NFC Wallet Launches; Both Pitch ‘Open’ Approach

NFC Times Exclusive: As Canada’s NFC infrastructure continues to grow, two NFC mobile wallets, one from a mobile carrier, the other from a partnership between two financial institutions, will launch in Canada over the next few months.

Both telco Rogers Communications and the pairing between TD Bank Group and retailer-owned President’s Choice Financial are pitching the open approach for their NFC-enabled wallets. 

Rogers boasts that its suretap wallet will be the first mobile wallet from a carrier in Canada. A year ago, the operator launched a SIM-based mobile-payments service with bank CIBC, using a CIBC-issued credit card on selected handsets. The project appeared to be an effort to gain first-mover publicity. But earlier this month, Rogers said it would go nationwide with suretap.

Meanwhile, when the Ugo wallet launches, users will be able to add TD Bank Visa cards, President’s Choice MasterCard-branded cards and the PC Plus loyalty card for Loblaw stores.

While it remains to be seen just how open the competing mobile wallets will be, the initiatives could test whether banks or MNOs are better suited to take the lead in rolling out mobile wallets.

Words: 1,700 

Among Topics Covered:
•Planned wallet offerings from Rogers Communications  and a partnership between TD Banking Group and  retailer-owned President’s Choice Financial
•Telco-based NFC payment applications
•Open approach to mobile wallets
•Carriers versus banks: Who is best positioned to lead  mobile-wallet rollouts? 

Sources Quoted:
•David Robinson, vice president for emerging business,  Rogers
•Spokespersons, Rogers, TD Banking Group, Presidents  Choice Financial
•Kevin Laracey, CEO, Paydiant
•Jane Zavalishina, chairwoman and CEO,  Yandex.Money
•Mehul Desai, co-founder, vice chairman, C-SAM 

Among companies and organizations mentioned:
Rogers
TD Bank
President’s Choice Financial
Loblaw Companies
CIBC
MasterCard Worldwide
Visa Europe
Sequent 

This is premium content from NFC Times

Read Full Article 

© NFC Times and Forthwrite Media. NFC Times content is for individual use and cannot be copied or distributed without the express permission of the publisher.