UK credit card firm Barclaycard, which has still not supported Apple Pay, launched a contactless payments app of its own.

The Android app is based on Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology that enables users to make contactless payments, including on London’s public transport system.

The Barclaycard Contactless app was first unveiled in September but is now available to users. Back in the autumn, the credit card giant claimed it was the UK’s first financial services provider to introduce contactless payments from any NFC-enabled Android phone via its app.

However, one area where Barclaycard has been a laggard compared to other UK financial institutions is in backing Apple Pay, the contactless payment service.

HCE enables Barclaycard to offer mobile payments on a NFC-enabled device without relying on access to its secure element.

Barclaycard was helped out on the project by Consult Hyperion. Dave Birch, a director of the consultancy, blogged: “One of our very favourite clients, Barclaycard, decided to exploit the Host Card Emulation technology in Android mobile phones and make a payment app so that customers could pay with their phones at any of the 300,000-plus contactless terminals in the UK.”

Additional features include the ability to make payments in excess of the current contactess limit of £30 in the UK by entering a PIN on the device. Users can also make payments on Transport for London so users can pay for buses and trains on the underground system.