February 27, 2015 - Banco do Brazil, PNC Bank and US Bank are set to join the growing band of finacial services firms working with Visa to offer their customers HCE-based contactless mobile payments.

A year ago Visa and MasterCard both announced support for HCE (Host Card Emulation), a cloud-based mechanism for hosting NFC applications outside the Secure Element that effectively removes the need for bank reliance on telcos in implementing mobile payments.

12 months on, both card giants are claiming significant interest in the technology. MasterCard says that it it has HCE-based projects underway in 15 countries, with pilots taking place in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, the UK and US.

Meanwhlie, Visa has worked with Spain's BBVA and Australia's Cuscal on similar projects that have already launched, while Banco do Brazil, PNC Bank and US Bank are set to follow suit.

Visa Europe says that over 30 banks are set to go live with HCE implementations by the end of the year. The card scheme says that seven member banks are already using HCE-based Android apps in Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

To use these new mobile payment services, consumers download their bank's app from the Google Play store, enrol and start paying in-store with their Visa accounts by waving their Android mobile phone in front of a contactless reader.

"2015 is the year in which fast and safe mobile payments based on Visa technology will proliferate across the world," says Sam Shrauger, SVP, digital solutions, Visa.