Citing “shortcomings” with the technology, Australia’s ANZ Banking Group Ltd. has halted development of a microSD iPhone case designed to turn a smartphone into a payment device.
The bank had partnered with Visa for a month-long trial in which staffers from offices in Sidney and Melbourne were given handsets with microSD memory cards that hosted a prepaid ANZ account (
ANZ said the trial’s participants were interested in contactless payments, but the technology did not meet its requirements. The bank did not elaborate in its public statement on why microSD–generally considered a stopgap measure for phones lacking built-in Near Field Communication technology–did not measure up. But it said it was dedicated to developing a mobile payments offering and was considering other technology. There’s a good chance that would mean NFC, though the bank did not mention NFC specifically in its announcement.
On the positive side, the bank says the trial confirmed an interest in contactless payments for low-value transactions under $100.
DeviceFidelity did not return a request for comment on June 28.
The move is bad news for microSD chips, which are big part of the current mobile payment market. Other recent bank microSD pilots are taking place at Wells Fargo and US Bancorp, which are using DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD chips. Visa has also partnered with DeviceFidelity to combine Visa’s payWave with DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay for a pilot that included use of microSD.
Additionally, Bank of America Corp. has invited a group of consumers to test drive a new mobile wallet that leverages BlackBerry handsets to execute contactless payments. Consumers will receive new battery covers and microSD cards that allow users to make point of sale payments by waving the handsets over terminals outfitted to accept MasterCard PayPass.
The new pilot follows another test of mobile contactless payments that BofA is conducting in New York with Visa.
Other pilots include First Data, which has teamed with Tyfone to provide SideTap microSD memory cards equipped with Tyfone’s technology that can transform mobile phones with memory slots into contactless payment devices.
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