The Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) has issued Best Practice for NFC Mobile Payment in Hong Kong, a set of common standards and best practices that aims to help establish an interoperable, as well as safe and effective, NFC mobile payment infrastructure.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), a division of the Hong Kong government, will take into account the security requirements outlined in the document when supervising banks' NFC mobile payment services.

The best practices and standards have been developed by the HKMA and HKAB over the past eight months and cover three areas:

Security — ensuring the security of e-wallets and the payment process, and thereby the security of services.Standards — establishing technical standards with reference to widely applied industry and international standards to enable interoperability between different NFC infrastructures, mobile devices and terminals and the continued development of NFC mobile payment services.Operational process — introducing a standardised operational process to enhance the user experience.

The document builds on a study into NFC payments, commissioned by the HKMA in July 2012, that led to an initial report in March 2013.

"Best Practice will allow banks and their business partners to further develop and launch new services based on a set of common guidelines and technical standards," says HKMA deputy chief executive Peter Pang. "It will enable them to move towards the four long-term objectives laid down by the HKMA at the beginning of this year and to achieve interoperability among different services.