Rim (RIMM) Working with BofA (BAC), Mastercard (MA) in Transaction Deal

A potential war is brewing between Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and carriers like AT&T (NYSE:T) over who has control of data in store transactions or transportation purchases.

RIM, in an attempt to be a first mover, is working with Mastercard (NYSE:MA) to work up a system to use with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) customers in New York.

At the end of 2010, Bank of America sent some of its BlackBerry-using customers in New York a memory card with an NFC chip capable of making a wireless payment when waved in front of special terminals found in subway stations, drug stores and taxi cabs.

As the mobile industry looks to turn cellphones into digital wallets, Research In Motion and wireless carriers are at odds over who should control the customer data.

The carriers say they want to encrypt and store the credentials in the phone's SIM card, the small chips placed in the back of phones to activate access to mobile networks. SIM cards can be easily swapped from phone to phone. Such a system provides a single payment hub that doesn't depend on what kind of phone you have, the carriers argue.

RIM wants the credentials built into a secure area of the BlackBerry itself, which would bind users to its devices and potentially cut carriers out of the loop, according to officials representing some of the carriers. RIM is already reaching out to banks on its own, these people say.

RIM closed Thursday at $60.85, gaining $1.01, or 1.69 percent.




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