Crédit Agricole has joined the precommercial trial of NFC services in the French city of Nice, according to France-based vendor Gemalto, which announced it is providing trusted service management for the bank.
UPDATE: Crédit Agricole has dediced not to participate in the Nice trial, shunning moible operator SIM cards and has instead launched a trial using microSD cards. END UPDATE.
Crédit Agricole was to have joined Crédit Mutuel-CIC and BNP Paribas in launching mobile payment for the Nice project. The two other banks had launched services during the latter part of 2010. But transaction numbers remain very small. Crédit Agricole launched the service last month. Other big French banks are expected to eventually join the project.