Processing payment transactions without a secure element

A user conducts a wireless payment transaction with a merchant system by transmitting payment information from a user device to a terminal reader without accessing a secure element resident on the user device. A user taps a user device in a merchant system's terminal reader's radio frequency field. The terminal reader and the user device establish a communication channel and the terminal reader transmits a signal comprising a request for a payment processing response. The signal is received by the user device and converted by a controller to a request understandable by an application host processor. The controller transmits the request to the application host processor, where the request is processed, and a response is transmitted to the controller and then to the terminal reader. The response generated by the application host processor is identifiable by the merchant system as a payment response.