UPDATED: UK bank NatWest has enabled 1,000 customers to tap to pay with Visa payWave using the iPhone 4 and 4S equipped with an NFC-enabled attachment, representing the first foray into mobile payment by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
The trial of the TouchPay service uses the iCarte add-on from Canada-based Wireless Dynamics, which carries an embedded secure element that will store the Visa payWave debit application. The attachment also sports a full NFC chip. Users can tap to pay at about 140,000 point-of-sale terminals accepting payWave in the UK and others abroad.
It's believed to be the first major NFC or contactless-mobile payment project by any part of the RBS Group, which is NatWest's parent. NatWest is RBS's major retail banking unit in England and Wales. RBS held a small internal trial of NFC payment five years ago at its Edinburgh headquarters.