Japanese card issuer JCB says it has agreed to share a common contactless communications protocol based on MasterCard's PayPass ISO/IEC14443 implementation specification.
Visa agreed to support the Mastercard PayPass ISO/IEC14443 protocol in March last year.
JCB's adoption of the specification means that the major international card brands will be basing contactless payment applications on the same communications protocol.
The Japanese firm says a common specification will allow POS terminal vendors to reduce the burden of system development. The protocol will also reduce initial costs for banks and merchants as it ensures global interoperability for contactless payment products.
Akihiko Shigemori, SVP, Advanced Technologies, JCB, says: "By this arrangement, we at JCB can accelerate our expansion of our contactless payment field in the international markets."
JCB says it plans to begin development of an international JCB brand contactless system based on the common communication protocol this year.
In September last year the Japanese card issuer joined an initiative from Visa and MasterCard to align security requirements, testing methodologies and approval procedures for PIN Entry Devices (PED).