Telefonica has enlisted m-commerce specialist Sybase 365 to help develop its mobile financial services around the world, in the latest step towards commercializing its mobile wallet product.
Sybase will build the virtual wallet into a product capable of offering mobile payments and peer-to-peer transfers. The service will bring together details of a user’s credit, debit and loyalty cards, and enable payments straight from the handset via NFC technology in the longer term.
Joaquín Mata, head of financial services at Telefónica Digital, says Sybase’s expertise will play a critical role in ensuring a solid customer experience for the mobile wallet service. "It is crucial that we assemble around us the best possible technology partners to power our mobile financial services products. Through partnership we can bring the best experience to our end user customers,” he comments.
The Spanish incumbent plans to launch commercial mobile financial services in Latin America and Europe during 1H12. It has already commenced several trials, and last year signed up smart card firm Giesecke & Devrient to develop a Europe-wide NFC platform. RIM is also on board, supplying smartphones to 350 testers.