Switzerland's five biggest banks are talking to retailers and financial infrastructure provider SIX Group about a joint mobile payments service.
Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, UBS and ZKB say that they have embarked on open-ended talks on a system with retailers Coop and Migros as well as telco Swisscom, as they seek to combine their might ahead of possible competition from the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung.
Currently, the potential partners are part of two competing mobile money services. UBS, ZKB, SIX and Swisscom have rolled out their Paymit mobile payment service for online and offline transactions. Meanwhile, PostFinance has enrolled several other banks for its own Twint offering.
Work will continue on these two technologically different services but the various parties have also decided to investigate the creation of an integrated, standardised system that will be open to all comers.
Details of what shape the service will take have not been decided, but a statement promises an update in early May.