New Zealand banks ASB and BNZ are to participate in live pilot trials of a new national mobile wallet developed by NFS NZ, a joint venture company established by the country's leading mobile networks and bank-owned eftpos firm Paymark.
NFS NZ - whose shareholdrs include Paymark, 2degrees, Spark and VodaFone - has been rebranded as Semble, ahead of a planned national roll out in 2015.
Credit and debit cards available in the Semble mobile wallet include ASB and BNZ cards and a number of Air New Zealand Airpoints earning GlobalPlus cards.
The technology will be available on a range of Android smartphones which have near field communication (NFC), on any mobile network in the country.
Semble has also entered into a marketing partnership with Samsung that will support the initial launch and rollout.
Semble will store personal information encrypted on a secure element contained within the SIM card, with app access activated via a security code.
Semble CEO Rob Ellis says additional bank cards, loyalty cards, and public transport ticketing will eventually be added to the app as new partners are brought onboard.
"Initially customers will be able to pay via their smartphone for goods and services but Semble will ultimately eliminate the need to carry any cards at all," he says. "Soon smartphone users will be able to purchase goods and services via their smartphones and know instantly whether they're due that free coffee or voucher without rifling through their collection of loyalty cards amassed over the years."