TORONTO – There could soon be a little less plastic stored in the wallets of Rogers’ smart phone customers after the wireless carrier confirmed Tuesday that it is teaming up with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) on a new mobile payment system.
Beginning later this year, Canadians with CIBC credit cards can opt to pay using their Rogers near field communications-enabled (NFC) smart phone at merchants where contactless credit card payments are accepted.
The system, the first practical application of Monday’s new mobile payment guidelines, accesses a customers’ credit card information, whether Visa or MasterCard, which has been stored on their device’s SIM card. At no extra costs to either customers or merchants, the new payment option provides the same security as contactless credit cards, plus offers the option to set additional password protection. It also allows users to continue to earn loyalty rewards on their purchases.
CIBC will “rent” space on the SIM cards, something that Rob Bruce, Roger’s president of communications, said “represents a whole new area of growth for Rogers”.
“Mobile payments are really the first step in the journey towards the mobile wallet”, he said during the joint announcement at CIBC’s headquarters in downtown Toronto. “Imagine a world where your transit pass, your health card, your library card, your driver’s licence and all those things that you have in your wallet today, will be stored securely in your phone. And in a few years, that digital wallet will be just as common as a camera is on a smart phone today.”
Bruce said that approximately 60% of Rogers’ postpaid wireless base has smart phones now, and about 300,000 are NFC-capable.
But are Canadians ready for a new way to buy their gas, groceries and coffee?
According to David Williamson, CIBC’s senior executive vice president of retail and business banking, Canada ranks second out of 34 countries on the mobile payments readiness index, ahead of the United States.
“Our clients are more than ready for this capability”, he said during the press conference, citing strong use of CIBC’s mobile banking app which launched in early 2010. “Today’s announcement raises the bar on mobile payments and we believe it’s just the beginning. We believe that this space will continue to evolve and are committed to continue to evolve right along with it.”
