Turkish payments group BKM joins NFC Forum

BKM, which acts as an NFC trusted service manager for member banks in Turkey, has joined the NFC Forum and revealed that four more banks are now ready to roll out NFC services.

BKM, Turkey's Interbank Card Center
BKM: Four more banks ready for NFC

The Interbank Card Center of Turkey (BKM), established in 1990 by thirteen Turkish banks to provide solutions to common payments technology issues, has joined the NFC Forum.

BKM has been working on NFC since 2008 and acts as a trusted service manager (TSM) for member banks bringing NFC to market, enabling them to share the cost of developing the technology needed to put commercial NFC solutions in place, Özgür Ayarcı, BKM’s VP of project management has told NFC World.

Turkey is one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of NFC market readiness. Turkcell launched its Cep-T Cüzdan NFC mobile wallet service in May 2011 and now has 300,000 customers signed up for the service. Rival mobile network operator Avea also has a commercial NFC service, launched in December 2010 in conjunction with Garanti Bank, and is working to expand the service further.

Four additional banks — Halkbank, Isbank, Vakifbank and Ziraat Bank — are now also ready to introduce NFC credit and debit card payments using BKM technology, Ayarcı says.

“There are many banks in our market and we’ll enable them to connect to Turkcell,” he adds. “As for Avea, banks using BKM infrastructure will be the first to reach Avea NFC services since Avea is developing its mobile wallet in line with our project.

“Going forward BKM will support all secure element forms, international payment schemes and value added NFC services like couponing, smart posters, loyalty, etc.

“The Turkish payment market is definitely ready for NFC services,” Ayarci explains. “BKM specially makes all centric investments and enables banks to reach all types of NFC services via all secure element forms like embedded, SIM-based and microSD solutions. The Turkish market is rapidly developing.”

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