Commonwealth Bank trials Australia's first contactless payment system

In an Australian first, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is piloting a contactless payment solution that supports both credit card and prepaid mobile phone payments at the MasterCard Masters Golf Tournament.

Using Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech’s ViVOnfc infrastructure software for Near Field Communication mobile phone payments, the NFC phones, which will be given away at the MasterCard Masters Golf Tournament launch, can be used throughout the country for payment at any contactless-enabled store.

“We’re really excited to be the first Australian bank to trial contactless payment technology using Near Field Communication,” said Lynda McMillan, executive manager, Credit Cards Issuing at the Commonwealth Bank. “ViVOtech’s NFC payment solution was selected because of its easy to use wallet interface for users and the company’s proven and highly secure OTA provisioning infrastructure to easily manage credit and debit card downloads.”

For this trial program, ViVOtech is supplying Commonwealth Bank with its full line of NFC-enabled payment products including: a Commonwealth Bank-branded ViVOwallet mobile phone user interface; a ViVOnfc Issuer Server that provides over-the-air loading and personalisation of card details into the mobile phones; and a ViVOnfc Control Server to provide over-the-air management of wallet loading and personalisation.

Michael Mullagh, ViVOtech CEO said the launch of this program will allow Australian consumers to use their mobile phones for credit and debit payments at contactless merchant locations across the country.

This trial marks ViVOtech’s entry into the Australian market.