OREANDA-NEWS. August 29, 2012. Estonia's leading banks and technology companies started a pilot project to test an innovative payment solution, where payment card chip functionality has been moved onto a cell phone SIM card. In the future bank’s customers may make their everyday card payments with a mobile phone instead of using payments made with regular plastic cards, reported the press-centre of SEB.

The pilot project is a continuation of the ten-month applied research project, which was searching for ways on how to implement NFC technology in Estonia. NFC (Near Field Communication) is a technology based on a special chip that allows communication in the near field contactless radio frequency spectrum to perform authentication and payment solutions.

To test the results of the study, the parties agreed to carry out a pilot project „Bank payment card’s in mobile phones“, which is based on the contactless NFC technology. NFC mobile payment system is significantly different to the payment methods used today - instead of a standard plastic card, a mobile SIM-card based payment method is used.

"The study achieved all its objectives – the so-called Estonian NFC architecture was agreed upon; everyone’s objectives and requirements were met," said Tiit Tammiste, EMT's technology director. "In addition, the creation process of a virtual credit card and it’s emittance onto a cell phone SIM-card was specified. We also looked ar contactless ticketing solutions for public transport where we propose a way forward.“

The NFC research project also attained significant international visibility and was mentioned in the industries top web portals and working groups dealing with NFC developments.

"We can proudly say that Estonia's NFC project takes into account the latest trends in the NFC world and its’ application technologies," said Oliver Vaartnou CEO of the ELIKO Technology Competence Centre. "The project results include the expertise and state of the art best practicies of a wide circle of partners, including MasterCard, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, GSM Association, and other top players."

Documentation created during the implementation of the study is publicly available on ELIKO Competence Centre website.

The research project is followed by a pilot project were partners test payment card emission onto a mobile phone, the security requirements and user interface of a mobile wallet containing various payment cards, and the transmission of payments made with a virtual payment card through the existing payment infrastructure.

The pilot project must also provide answers to key organizational issues on how to incorporate merchants and end users with the new service, especially on how to ensure a quality product service and a smooth customer experience.

The pilot project is conducted between a selected group of test users from January 2013. The pilot has to provide an answer if and how there will be a commercial launch of the service to end customers.

The pilot project is carried out by Danske Bank A/S Estonian Branch (Sampo Bank), ELIKO Technology Competence Center, EMT, Nordea Bank Plc Estonia Branch, SEB Bank and Swedbank. The strategic partner in the pilot project is Oberthur Technologies, a global producer of mobile SIM-card and smart card technology, who provides the secure SIM-card that meets the requirements of a virtual bank payment card.