Gemalto and Worldline launch mobile payments service for banks as Barclays brings Apple Pay to customers

Gemalto and Worldline have built a end-to-end service to allow banks and card issuers to more easily deploy mobile payments wallets with their cards.

Worldline will provide the tokenisation to transform the physical card into a digital token. Tokenisation substitutes a series of numbers for customers’ actual account information so that when token data is stored, the sensitive information is not exposed.

It will also provide identity verification and other issuing-relating services.

Gemalto will provide the credential delivery services that will allow the tokens to be embedded into the mobile wallet using the Allynis Trusted Services Hub.

The product is centred on banks, which are faced with a deluge of mobile payments solutions launches.

A recent study from Juniper Research claimed that the annual transaction value of online, mobile and contactless payments will reach $3.6 trillion this year, a 20 percent increase from $3 trillion in 2015.

Apple Pay was launched in July last year, with Juniper Research arguing that "Apple Pay will not only drive, but will also create a ‘halo effect’ for contactless payment in general."

In addition, Google confirmed last month that Android Pay will hit the UK in the next few months, Google has confirmed.

Google did not provide a specific release date, but confirmed that Android Pay will support MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards from major financial institutions including Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society.

Google says that it has teamed up with leading payment platforms, processors and technology providers to make it easier to accept Android Pay.

Samsung Pay was launched in South Korea on August 20, and in the U.S. on September 28. A UK launch is expected in 2016.

The news from Gemalto and Worldline came the same week that Barclays and Barclaycard launched Apple Pay for their UK customers.

Barclaycard and Barclays customers can, from today, use Apple Pay, the easy, secure and private way to pay at the hundreds of thousands of locations across the UK that accept contactless payments.

Apple Pay users can now add their Barclays debit card and Barclaycard credit card to Wallet, which will allow them to make payments using Apple products at over 400,000 contactless locations in the UK.

In February, Visa Europe expanded its Visa Europe Payment Tokenisation Service (the technology that enables Apple Pay) to enable a far wider range of banks, retailers, and technology firms to integrate tokenisation into their services.