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by brotchie 4340 days ago
I wonder what their plans are for NFC / PayPass / PayWave? Are there technological barriers to it? Could a NFC enabled Smartphone act as a payment terminal?

It's only on rare occasions now that I have to even put in a pin (in Australia), NFC style payment terminals are pretty much ubiquitous.

NFC payments in 80-90% of stores, many parking machines, >50% of vending machines.
3 comments
mpclark 4340 days ago
I'm not an expert on this area but I believe NFC smartphones can't currently act as payment terminals because PCI rules mandate that such things should be self-contained single-purpose devices with their own PIN pad.

However, the game could change completely with the move to tokenization.

That's really cool that contactless is so ubiquitous in Oz. As a nation you guys are very much ahead of the game on the whole contactless/NFC thing.

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mootothemax 4340 days ago
I believe NFC smartphones can't currently act as payment terminals because PCI rules mandate that such things should be self-contained single-purpose devices with their own PIN pad.

The NFC cards, SIMs, keyfobs etc. don't necessarily require a PIN here in Poland; you're good for ~$15 USD (50 PLN).

If you need to pay more than that, you then have to enter your PIN as you suggest.

Limits the use cases to corner-shop-equivalent purchases, still quite a large market!

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bryanlarsen 4340 days ago
In Canada, some merchants are now accepting NFC payments without PIN for up to CAD200 (USD180). When they first arrived, limits were typically more like $25.
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Nursie 4340 days ago
>> Could a NFC enabled Smartphone act as a payment terminal?

I don't know if there's a technical reason why not, but the security requirements for these devices are fairly stringent and getting a piece of software, running on a relatively open system with other apps from unknown sources all over it, well the certification folks would probably take a hell of a lot of convincing.

Not saying it can;t be done, but I don't think I'd like to be on that project.

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joelhaasnoot 4340 days ago
Indeed, essentially this is a step behind the curve. While adoption isn't fast - the Netherlands is deploying both new cards to customers and new POS terminals with NFC built in.
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