French telecoms giant Orange will partner with Wirecard to launch its new NFC mobile payment service, Orange Cash.
The payment service is currently being piloted in Strausbourg and Caen, with plans for a full rollout in Q2 2014. The new partners say that Wirecard, a Visa Europe company, will run the digital platform issuing virtual Visa cards onto NFC enabled SIM cards.
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Thierry Millet, vice president of mobile payments and NFC at Orange, said: "We are looking forward to launching Orange Cash and the successful start of a new era in mobile contactless payments inFrance.
"The context in France is positive: we have been driving the rollout of NFC-enabled smartphones for several years, and have already issued a large number of NFC-based SIM cards."
Orange said it would use Wirecard’s mobile loyalty platform to launch value added platform. Wirecard has also developed an Orange Cash smartphone app.
Markus Braun, CEO of Wirecard, said: "Orange is pioneering mobile contactless payments on the French market. We are very pleased to collaborate with Orange in creating the future of mobile payments in France.
"Wirecard has staked its place as a leading partner for mobile payment solutions at the very start of the European mobile payment initiatives."
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