NZ's Semble launches mobile wallet

The closely-watched consortium of New Zealand banks, mobile phone companies and the country's main payments network has formally launched its integrated mobile wallet to almost a million Android phone users.

The Semble wallet was launched to customers of National Australia Bank's BNZ and Commonwealth Bank of Australia's ASB with contactless Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards. They can use 24 of the most recent models of Android phones that have NFC chips to make payments at more than 20,000 contactless terminals in New Zealand, and at such terminals in Australia.

Semble is owned by a consortium of ASB, BNZ, mobile phone networks Vodafone, Spark and 2Degrees, and Paymark, the payments network owned by the Big Four banks that runs the EFTPOS network.

The formal launch followed a five-month trial by more than 200 staff from Semble's partners. The launch included the announcement that Snapper would become its first transit card partner from June and Burger Fuel would become its first stored value coupon partner from April. Snapper is a stored value card used on Wellington's public transport network and for other contactless payments, while Burger Fuel is New Zealand's biggest gourmet burger chain.

Semble CEO Rob Ellis told Banking Day the collaboration was unique on a global scale.

"Other mobile wallets have launched around the world, but Semble is the first to present a united front, with many industry leaders working together," Ellis said.

The collaborative approach in New Zealand contrasts with the more splintered approach in Australia, where stand-alone mobile wallets have been launched by banks such as ANZ and CBA, mobile phone operators such as Optus, and retailers such as Coles.

"We have produced a mobile wallet that can cater for a wide range of services and what we are launching today with payments is just the beginning," he said.

"We look forward to welcoming many more service providers to the Semble marketplace, including more banks as well as loyalty cards, public transport cards, ticketing, offers, vouchers and much more."

ASB and BNZ customers can set up their contactless cards with Semble by obtaining a new Semble-ready secure SIM card from their mobile network. The customer then downloads Semble from the Google Play store before visiting their bank's secure website to assign their contactless cards to Semble.

Data about the cards being used and transactions made are stored on the encrypted SIM card and the card can work even when it's not turned on or in mobile coverage, as long as there is residual battery power for the NFC chip.

Ellis said Semble had been designed as a "one stop shop" to replace all the cards in a physically over-stuffed wallet within one integrated app.

Semble users who signed up for the Burger Fuel facility would receive special offers for redemption by tapping its terminals at the counter.

"This marks the beginning of a third Semble category offering voucher and offers capability, following payments and transit categories, with more details of other services to be announced in coming months," Ellis said.

Semble said it had yet to have discussions with Apple, which launched its own Apple Pay contactless payments service on its new NFC-enabled iPhone 6 in the United States, but has yet to announce plans to launch in Australia or New Zealand.

Ellis said customers were not able to use Semble as an EFTPOS card, given they are not compatible with contactless terminals in New Zealand, but if EFTPOS cards ever were to become contactless, he hoped the cards would be available.

He said Semble was in discussions with ANZ, Kiwibank, TSB, the Co-operative Bank and UnionPay about joining. Westpac New Zealand has gone its own way with a mobile wallet, but Ellis said the door remained open for Westpac.

Ellis said Semble planned to make further announcements about new partners in the months ahead. Semble is using Gemalto software for security and MasterCard Mobile Transaction Solutions, formerly C-SAM, for its digital wallet. Semble is using a secure element solution on its SIM cards, rather than the Host Card Emulation used by some mobile wallets, including ANZ New Zealand's wallet, expected to launch later this year.