The three largest banks and three largest mobile operators in the Netherlands today announced their intention to form a joint venture to launch mobile payment, using full NFC phones.
The banks, ING, Rabobank and ABN Amro; and telcos, KPN, T-Mobile Netherlands and Vodafone Netherlands; have not yet specified a launch date, but say they plan a rollout sometime in 2012. The partners also are fine tuning plans for the payment applications they will offer and how they will roll out contactless terminals at the point of sale. And they plan to hire a CEO for the venture, which they will form next year, Arjan Bol, director of payments for ING bank, told NFC Times.
As NFC Times reported earlier this summer, the Dutch banks and telcos gave the project the green light at a meeting June 28, following months of discussions. The venture by the three banks and three telcos–dubbed the six pack–would be a first of its kind among financial institutions and mobile operators, working together to roll out mobile payment.
