Dutch bank ING has announced the launch of the new project in Romania developed in cooperation with MasterCard. According to the recent release the partners decided to pilot the NFC based m-payment system to provide the Romanians with an opportunity to use their mobile phones to make all kids of payments.

The trial period will last for six month during which 500 clients will be provided with mobile phones with integrated NFC technology to make various payments by means of the cell phones. Also the phones can be used to top up Maestro PayPass accounts using a special code.

This is the first stage of the ING Mobile Payments trial in Romania, according to ING Romania executive director Albert Roggemans. The participant merchants are located in Bucharest and include press distribution company Inmedio, Eurest, ProCinema, Hollywood Multiplex, as well as SensiBlu and Remedio drugstores. Trial participants are to be able to pay for low value purchases of up to RON 80 (EUR 20.66) by tapping their phones against contactless terminals installed in 30 to 40 locations. On top of the mobile payments service, participants as well as merchants will have access to marketing services provided through smart posters that rely on NFC, reports Payment News.