NFC Times Exclusive – Mobile operators are considering shopping for technology to launch a common platform to request tokenized payment cards from such providers as MasterCard Worldwide and Visa and to load the tokens onto their NFC SIM cards, NFC Times has learned.

Mobile operator trade group GSMA last week issued a request for information, or RFI, for the project, which it has tentatively titled the “Shared Payment Enabler.” The trade group said the initiative could enable banks that are “already interfaced to the payment scheme tokenization platforms to easily extend their reach beyond Apple Pay and provide an Apple Pay-like proposition to consumers with non-Apple NFC phones,” such as Android devices. 

The group and certain telco backers believe a shared platforms and technology could simplify the process for banks and other issuers to provision their payment cards onto SIMs. At the same time, it would help the operators to make use of the millions of dollars of investment in NFC infrastructure the telcos have made–an infrastructure that is believed to be largely unused by consumers.