The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 have earned the MasterCard PayPass Certification, the first SMS-based smartphones to do so. Now that these phones are PayPass certified, any issuing bank with authority to issue PayPass can assign an account to the SIM card contained in these phones.
Andrew Bocking, Vice President, Handheld Software Product Management at RIM indicated in a released statement today that RIM is proactively working with carrier partners, banks, retailers and other industry players in regards to NFC technology. This certification is a “significant step forward in the way we use mobile devices for payments” he said.
Both of these phone models were released by RIM last August as the company began its foray into NFC.