Mobile Credit Card Launched in Japan

ASIA : BWCS - As expected, NTT DoCoMo has finally launched its own its own credit card brand.

The new “card”, called iD, will enable users to make payments using their mobile phones.

According to the Japanese mobile giant a number of its new handsets will offer the credit card functionality.

Using the new iD card system DoCoMo customers will be able to pay for goods and services by swiping their phones over a dedicated RF reader. Payment will then be automatically deducted from their credit card account.

DoCoMo has pioneered this form of mobile payment using the FeliCa system, which enables users to make micro-payments with their handsets. Subscribers to the new credit card system will be able to make larger payments using their 'o-saifu-keitai' (mobile wallet) and a password for authorisation. Smaller payments will be processed automatically without the need for a PIN number. Should the phone be lost or stolen it can, DoCoMo says, be automatically and instantly locked. DoCoMo itself will act as a credit card provider from the first half of fiscal 2006.

However, the dominant mobile operator does not have the field of mobile payments to itself in Japan. In mid-October the major Japanese credit card companies formed an alliance to promote a standard aimed at allowing greater use of mobile phones in lieu of credit cards. The organization, which is headed by credit card company JCB Co, includes mobile phone operators KDDI and Vodafone KK. The Japanese wing of Vodafone said it plans to set up an infrastructure to drive usage for the system, which it calls QUICPay. The system will use SonyCorp’s smart chip.

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