Giesecke & Devrient is working with Brazilian mobile operator Claro and one of the country’s largest banks in Bradesco to enable consumers to conduct contactless payments using smartphones embedded with a special SIM card, according to a press release.

Giesecke & Devrient calls this commercial project the first of its kind in Latin America, according to a statement. Consumers in São Paulo will be among the first to use the NFC-enabled smartphones with deployments in other parts of Brazil coming later this year.

Giesecke & Devrient is supplying the SIM cards with secure storage for the payment software, as well as the SmartTrust Portigo mobile wallet for smartphones, which contains sensitive customer information such as credit or debit card numbers and account details. The company is also providing the Trusted Service Manager solutions to both Bradesco and Claro. The TSM solutions enable customers to receive Bradesco accountholders' payment card information onto their devices in an encrypted, secure form via Claro's mobile network, according to the press release.

Giesecke & Devrient's NFC-enabled SkySIM CX SIM cards provide a secure element for storing the payment application and the relevant personal data, such as account information from Visa and Mastercard, the company said in a press release. The SmartTrust Portigo mobile wallet software enabels smartphone users to electronically manage items they would traditionally keep in their back pockets, including payment, identity or loyalty cards. For Claro and Bradesco, this opens up a vast array of new business opportunities, Giesecke & Devrient said in the release.

Claro customers buying a new NFC device already benefit from the preinstalled mobile wallet application. The mobile wallet application can be installed onto existing Claro customers' smartphones. The Claro-branded mobile wallet provided by Giesecke & Devrient can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Giesecke & Devrient uses Claro's mobile network to securely transmit Bradesco accountholders' payment card information to the secure element on their SIM card.

"By adopting mobile payment services based on NFC technology, Brazil is setting the course for all of Latin America," Carsten Ahrens, group senior vice president for Giesecke & Devrient's server software and services division, said in a press release.