The Royal Bank of Canada today announced the addition of Host Card Emulation to the RBC mobile app, allowing Canadians to pay with most Android mobile phones without worrying about being on the right mobile network or having the right SIM card, according to a press release. RBC said it is the first North American financial institution to develop an HCE payment product.

The new product will be first available to a group of RBC employees, allowing them to pay with their RBC Interac debit card, leveraging Interac Flash contactless functionality, according to the announcement. Visa and MasterCard will be added shortly.

"We are committed to providing our clients with the most innovative, convenient and secure solutions to pay how they want, when they want — HCE is a critical step," said Linda Mantia, executive vice president of digital, payments and cards for RBC. "HCE makes RBC secure cloud mobile payments even easier to use."

The employee pilot begins today and will run through winter, according to the announcement.

"As a leading innovator within the Canadian payments space, we are pleased to support RBC on the addition of HCE to the RBC mobile app," said Mark O'Connell, president and CEO of Interac Association and Acxsys Corp.