MasterCard adds Mobile PayPass User Interface SDK

“MasterCard is providing a programmer-friendly set of functions that make it easy for application developers to rapidly deliver payment apps to consumers – without having to become smart card programming experts,” says the payments network.

MUNG-KI WOO: MasterCard is working to reduce complexity of implementation

MasterCard has released the Mobile MasterCard PayPass User Interface Software Development Kit (UI SDK), designed to make it easier for issuers, mobile network operators and third party developers to create NFC payment apps.

The UI SDK is available for Android and BlackBerry OS 7 phones and is available globally without fees. The toolkit includes:

  • API code libraries
  • API specification documentation
  • A developer guide
  • Sample UI application code
  • A white label reference UI application
  • A test suite to ensure compliance

The APIs allow developers to communicate as necessary with the secure element and also deal with the presentation layer, which is what the consumer sees.

“These tools help to rapidly integrate Mobile MasterCard PayPass into a proximity payment mobile UI application, a mobile banking application or a mobile wallet application,” says MasterCard. “The white label reference UI application allows financial institutions to create a contactless mobile application within their own branded app. Along with a developer-friendly toolkit, MasterCard has also streamlined the UI approval process so that customers can quickly and efficiently bring a Mobile MasterCard PayPass service to market.”

“Prior to the launch of the Mobile MasterCard PayPass UI SDK, highly specialised skills were required to develop applications that could interface with the NFC capabilities in popular smartphones,” the payments network adds. “Now, MasterCard is providing a programmer-friendly set of functions that make it easy for application developers to rapidly deliver payment apps to consumers — without having to become smart card programming experts.”

MasterCard plans to continue working on ways to make it easier for companies to implement mobile payments, Mung-ki Woo, MasterCard’s head of mobile, told attendees at the NFC World Congress in Nice this week.

“We have to reduce complexity,” he explained. “We have to make implementation easier.” The advantage of Mobile PayPass is that it is a single, global product, Woo said. But it can also be implemented in “a huge array of ways”.

That means “there is too much choice”, he added. MasterCard therefore plans to make proposals in the next few months that will reduce the overall number of choices so that implementation becomes easier — although details of how the payments network plans to do that have not yet been made available.

More details of the new UI SDK as well as a demo of the toolkit are available in a video presented by James Anderson, MasterCard’s SVP of mobile product development:

The UI SDK is free to license and is available now from [email protected].

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