Methods and systems for authenticating a short-range communications HCE (Host Card Emulation) application for mobile communications devices. HCE application data can be transmitted to each registered mobile communications device among a group of mobile communications devices for storage of the HCE application data in a non-volatile memory associated with each registered mobile communications device. The HCE application data include a unique identifier, an expiry date, and an authentication key valid only for a user of each registered mobile communications device. The authentication key can then be diversified by the expiry date and the unique identifier so that the authentication key is only usable for a limited amount of time and the unique identifier is only usable for a single mobile communications device.