NFC project by Dutch banks and telcos: six pack

Since some time, work is on the way between the three big banks and telco's in the Netherlands on payments with NFC. See the report in the NFC as of July and as of September. The project is named six pack by the way and time will tell if it really deserves that name...

From NFC:
The banks have agreed to put the NFC payment applications onto SIM cards the telcos will issue, so they likely have agreed to some type of model in which banks would rent space for their payment applications on the telcos' SIMs. Bol declined to discuss models. ING has been designated to speak for the rest of the partners, a bank spokeswoman said.

There are still many unanswered questions for the project, however, especially how the parties will jump-start contactless payment, since a contactless-payment infrastructure is almost nonexistent in the Netherlands. Much of the discussions among the banks and telcos the past 12 months have concerned how to get contactless terminals rolled out, NFC Times has learned. Bol said the rollout of EMV payment in the Netherlands means merchants will have newer point-of-sale terminals installed, which can more easily be upgraded to accept contactless.

But the banks and telcos still have to convince merchants to accept contactless and, according to Bol, the banks have no plans for a separate contactless-card rollout that could use the same terminals. Banks may issue contactless cards separately, however, and ABN Amro is trialing cards.

Financial History of Payments... separate log

A couple of months ago, I opened a new weblog, dedicated to the financial history of payments, banking and Amsterdam. So for those interested in the old times, do have a look at my weblog on financial history here.