News from the Wire

FIME ready to support additional NFC demand

Thursday, September 18, 2014 — 11:40:27 (EDT)

Antony, France, Sept. 18, 2014 -- FIME, a trusted provider of consulting services, certification and tools, has announced that it is ready to accommodate additional market demand for contactless payment testing and certification services.

The company highlights that the entire contactless payment infrastructure will expand as a result of Apple’s inclusion of near-field-communication (NFC) capabilities as part of the iPhone 6. This includes the terminal point-of-sale (POS) acceptance infrastructure as well as mobile devices and applications.

Stéphanie El Rhomri, NFC & Payment Vendors Business Line Manager at FIME, comments: “Apple is great at showcasing the functionality of its offering and explaining to its user community how they will directly benefit. This level of hype around NFC, and the ability to make contactless payments using a mobile handset, will provide a significant boost to the NFC ecosystem.”

While Apple’s NFC capabilities were focused on the US marketplace, the contactless payment infrastructure is growing globally. Many terminal vendors already have contactless payment-enabled POS devices deployed across a range of merchants, predominately accepting contactless payment cards.

Stephanie adds: “Apple is the latest handset manufacturer to offer customers NFC capabilities. Its endorsement of the technology will see many new, innovative players looking to enter this market. This will encourage the evolution of many pioneering solutions, yet it is important to highlight that Apple Pay is operating within the payments community and certain standards, such as EMV and tokenization, technologies where FIME is highly expert.”

As an implementation services partner for customers using contact and contactless EMV and NFC technologies, FIME supports customers from project initiation to completion by advising on commercial and technical requirements, consulting on industry regulations and streamlining testing and certification activity. FIME has been supporting card and terminal vendors in contactless product development since 2002. It offers a comprehensive portfolio of mobile and payment services including American Express, Discover, EMVCo, MasterCard and NFC Forum.

Take a look at FIME’s white paper focusing on the NFC security chain: The NFC Security Quiz - 6 key questions answered regarding today’s security framework for delivering sensitive NFC mobile services.

For information on the full range of specifications supported by the tool, visit the website, or contact your local FIME office for information on how it can support your projects.

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Source: Company press release.