For release: 31 Aug 2009
NFC Forum and Mobey Forum Collaborate to Boost Mobile Payment Standardization
Relationship will drive development of critical enablers for mobile financial services
OULU, Finland - August 31, 2009 - The NFC Forum (http://www.nfc-forum.org), a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, and the Mobey Forum (http://www.mobeyforum.org/), a global financial industry forum whose mission is to facilitate the offering by banks of mobile financial services, today announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the two groups. Under the provisions of the agreement, the NFC Forum and the Mobey Forum will work together to further ongoing efforts to create open standards that enable the delivery of services that provide secure and interoperable mobile financial transactions.
Koichi Tagawa, NFC Forum Chairman, and Liisa Kanniainen, Mobey Forum Executive Director, signed the agreement today in Oulu, Finland, during Mobile Monday (http://www.mobilemonday.net). The two organizations share a common interest in fostering the successful use of mobile financial services, and the new agreement will enable progress toward this mutual objective. The Mobey Forum, whose members represent the entire Mobile Financial Services (MFS) Ecosystem, will communicate the critical business requirements of the financial community for consideration in open technical standards developed by the NFC Forum, many of whose members are mobile communications, semiconductor and consumer electronics companies.
"Financial services applications are among the key uses of NFC technology worldwide," said Mr. Tagawa. "As the global industry association driving mobile financial services, the Mobey Forum will be an invaluable ally in making it easier for mobile users everywhere to perform a broad range of financial services transactions."
The Mobey Forum Chairman Ron van Wezel of Deutsche Bank warmly welcomes the co-operation with NFC Forum: "Together with NFC Forum we can develop standards and remove other barriers to support banks to go to market faster with mobile payment solutions that their clients are looking for. We believe that the enablement of open services, open provisioning and technical standards, facilitate the creation of new services for growth and healthy financial returns in the entire ecosystem."
The signing coincides with the NFC Forum all-members meeting, taking place in Oulu August 31-September 6. During the week-long event, representatives from the 140 NFC Forum member organizations convene to advance initiatives focused on bringing Near Field Communication-enabled products and services to market. The face-to-face meeting gives NFC Forum committee, working group and task force members the opportunity to meet in more than 40 working sessions. The NFC Forum holds three all-members meetings a year; the next meeting will be held December 7-11 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
About Mobey Forum
The Mobey Forum is a global not for profit organisation, driven by the finance industry. It was founded in 2000 and it is the leading established industry body targeting to create the Mobile Financial Services ecosystem and enabling banks to offer mobile financial services. The Mobey Forum has over 50 members with member categories covering leading banks, vendors, payment processors and mobile network operators. The Board Members of the Mobey Forum are from Deutsche Bank, UBS, HSBC, BBVA, eLaCaixa, Nordea, Rabobank, DnB NOR, and Nokia.
The Mobey Forum operates through member Workshops, each specially designed to address the most challenging current issues, facilitated by recognized leaders within the industry. Additionally the Mobey Forum fosters ongoing Workgroups and Task Forces focussed on specific themes and development areas in order to promote the exchange of expertise, insight and solutions to be available to its members and the industry. As part of its ongoing work and publications the Mobey Forum has become the key source of independent cutting edge MFS market information. There are four all-member Workshops annually organized by Mobey Forum; the next one will be held in Utrecht, the Netherlands October 20.-21.
About Near Field Communication Technology
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions between electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch.
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology provides global interoperability of contactless identification and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters. The underlying layers of NFC technology are based on ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards. NFC technology is supported by the world's leading communication device manufacturers, semiconductor producers, network operators, IT and services companies, and financial services organizations. NFC is compatible with hundreds of millions of contactless cards and readers already deployed worldwide.
About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum, http://www.nfc-forum.org, was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor and consumer electronics companies. The Forum's mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum's 140 global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery and device capability.
The NFC Forum's Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: Innovision Research & Technology plc, INSIDE Contactless, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, Renesas Technology, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Visa Inc.
