Innovalue #payments INSIGHT | OPINION Vol 6 • Q1 2014 Host Card Emulation: The wings of NFC payments Mirko Krauel, Both approaches are currently not have to be commercially orchestrated, and Principal broadly successful in the market due to a (4) the different players “fight” for the custom- number of reasons. The following article will er ownership. Erik Heimbächer, focus on mobile payment solutions based on The above-mentioned challenges are Associate traditional schemes and will describe how especially true between Mobile Network HCE could revitalize this strategic approach. Operators (MNOs) and issuers since MNOs are gate keepers with reference to the SIM. Issuers The non-breakthrough of Mobile Payments who intend on getting a payment card into For a rather long time already, companies with Bone of contention: the secure element the mobile phone have to arrange coopera- diverse industry backgrounds have worked on Mobile payment solutions based on tradition- tion with multiple telecommunication enabling mobile payments using smartphones al payment schemes are currently storing sen- providers. For granting access to the SIM, at the point of sale (POS). In this context, two sitive payment data on a tamper resistant lo- often MNOs expect e.g. revenue shares or blue-print strategies can be observed in the cation, broadly known as the secure element. customer access. market: (1) the set-up of proprietary, self-con- Different types of secure elements are possi- tained mobile payment ecosystems, and (2) ble (e.g. smartphone embedded, microSD "HCE has the potential to the set-up of mobile payment solutions based card, SIM card), but in fact the secure ele- unlock innovation in the NFC on traditional schemes. Companies following ment is in most cases located on a mobile’s space around payment and the proprietary approach try to build their own SIM card. Traditionally, a SIM-based secure el- ecosystem around mobile payment and com- ement strategy comes with the need to coor- non-payment services" merce services with e.g. a new acceptance dinate a comparatively high number of play- brand. On the other hand, mobile payment ers. That fact leads to a multitude of Game changer: Host Card Emulation solutions based on traditional schemes try to le- challenges: (1) since every player wants to A solution to solve especially the gate keeper verage the established payment ecosystem have a slice of the transaction pie, profitable issue around the SIM-based secure element is with its growing NFC acceptance infrastructure business models are difficult to develop, (2) Host Card Emulation (HCE), which gained by trying to integrate virtual credit or debit the technical solutions are complex and cost broad attention with the emergence of An- cards (e.g. Visa, MasterCard) into the mobile. intensive, (3) the large number of players droid KitKat in October 2013. Currently TABLE OF CONTENTS Host Card Emulation: The wings of NFC payments Public market valuations and the market environment Due to a number of reasons, mobile NFC payment solutions are currently not broadly Public companies in the payments universe have continued to trade up over the successful. Mirko Krauel and Erik Heimbächer will show why Host Card Emulation past 12 months. Markus Massem takes a closer look at valuation drivers and could re-vitalize the market p1 benchmarks the different groups within the payments universe p6 Innovations for the financial industry – FinovateEurope 2014 Recap M&A Activity How do innovators plan to shape the future of Europe’s financial industry? Verena What are the key drivers of M&A activity? Which transactions made headlines in Hinrichs recaps her visit to FinovateEurope 2014 providing an overview of show- the 1st Quarter of 2014? What are recent takeover rationales? Andreas Haber- cased solutions and innovation trends p3 setzer and Robert Kayser answer these questions p7 VC Activity Once again the Innovalue team reviews the latest payment startup funding ac- tivity (Q1 2014). What are current product or service innovations for investors, and what are the global investment trends within the payment ecosystem? p4 Innovalue #payments INSIGHT|OPINioN 2 However, the remaining key factor is Since the SIM is no longer a control point, Secure element based Host card based where the payment data that an app sends e.g. merchants and issuers, to name only a to the NFC reader actually comes from. Cur- few, are able to launch their own payment Host CPU Host CPU rently, the most promising solution is a services or could enhance existing coupon- combination of cloud-based storage and ing or loyalty solutions with payment tokenization of sensitive payment data, as functionalities. As we believe HCE to be a UICC/SIM card Secure Element proposed by Visa and MasterCard earlier this potential game changer, there are implica- year. tions for the players of the ecosystem. Based By potentially making mobile NFC payment on our expertise of the market, we have sum- NFC controller NFC controller solutions independent from the SIM, HCE may marized potential impacts of HCE on key simplify the ecosystem: time consuming players of the mobile payment and com- negotiations with telecommunication provid- merce ecosystem (Table 1). ers about e.g. revenue shares or SIM rental In our view, HCE will lead to a significant models as well as a costly Trusted Service increase of the number of NFC mobile pay- NFC terminal NFC terminal Manager integration are now a thing of the ment apps / wallets in the market. However, Figure 1: Secure element based card emulation vs. HCE past. Hence, HCE may well put an end to the as consumers will select payment services long battle between mobile payment provid- providing the broadest acceptance at POS, - 1 - © Innovalue 2014ers, I STRICTLY TSMs, CONFIDENTIAL handset manufacturers, issuers and the highest value and the best user experi- available on mobile phones running Android telecommunication providers with reference ence, only a few solutions are expected to 4.4 and on some BlackBerry devices, we are to cooperation models. Now, the fight shifts to survive as time proceeds. convinced that other OS providers and/ or developing the best product and to gain In order to benefit from the current hardware manufacturers such as Microsoft market shares as quickly as possible. momentum, all players of the ecosystem with its Windows Phone will soon also provide have to understand the implications of HCE HCE functionality. on their current strategy, business models as HCE allows any Android NFC device to be Future-proof: HCE to boost mobile payments well as product offering and have to adapt used for mobile payment and other secure We believe that HCE has the potential to where necessary. The ones who do, will fly on applications without needing access to the unlock innovation in the NFC space around the wings of HCE, the ones who don’t, will SIM. When an NFC card is emulated using payment and non-payment services. Backed most likely be pushed out of the market. HCE, the data is routed to the host CPU on by the support of the payment schemes and Innovalue has prepared an analysis on which Android applications are running the chance to simplify the ecosystem, the HCE and its strategic implications. If you are directly, instead of routing the data to the SIM number of NFC mobile payment services interested in the results please contact Mirko (Figure 1). It is important to note, that HCE just using HCE is already growing rapidly. Besides Krauel [email protected] makes sure that the data is safely transmitted Google Wallet, e.g. Spain's Bankinter, Atos to the NFC controller and out to the NFC Worldline, Carta Worldwide have announced reader. Meanwhile, sensitive data can be their support for HCE in different ways. Even stored at a wide range of locations, e.g. on the US carrier venture ISIS is considering the host itself or within the cloud. migrating to a HCE-based wallet over time. Player Advantages Challenges Schemes • HCE may lead to a break-through of mobile POS payments; this may potentially • Reputation could decrease since HCE-based se- further increase the business of the schemes curity models are potentially weaker in • Possibly strengthen market position by e.g. covering role of a token service comparison to the SE-based security model provider MNOs • Since SIM card/TSM model is not further required, cost of providing a mobile • Loss of gate-keeper position as SE provider and payment service decreases also for MNOs thus potentially loss of SIM rental fees • Dual strategy possible (HCE and SIM/TSM) • Other payment and commerce provider may “win the mobile payment race”; strategic re-scoping may be necessary Issuers • Independently develop own payment application • Reputation could decrease since HCE-based se- • Since SIM card/TSM model is not further required, cost of providing a mobile curity models are potentially weaker than the SE- payment service potentially decreases based security model • Issuers will keep full customer ownership • Data security has not been discussed fully yet Merchants • Independently develop own payment application together with an issuer • Own proprietary single-merchant focused apps • HCE makes NFC a "safer bet“(for payments only!) compared to QR etc. will lose their relevance Attackers/new • Any provider can launch an Android app that could perform a card • Potentially increased competition between at- players emulation transaction tackers/new players and banks/issuers • Non-secure NFC services (e.g. couponing) can quickly migrate to HCE Table 1: Advantages and challenges of HCE for selected players Page1 Innovalue #payments INSIGHT|OPINioN 3 Innovations for the financial industry – FinovateEurope 2014 Recap Verena Hinrichs, Senior Associate This year’s FinovateEurope has been one of the event highlights in the first quarter of 2014.