National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has teamed up with Visa and telecommunications operator Zain to introduce a six-month NFC mobile payment trial in the GCC, using NFC enabled Nokia 6212 devices.

As part of the trial, 500 participating NBK cardholders will be able to download their Zain Visa credit card account details directly to their Nokia 6212 classic handset over the Zain network and make purchases at nearly 100 merchant outlets at Kuwait's The Avenues mall by passing a Nokia mobile phone over the Visa payWave reader at the POS. Purchases will be charged directly to the customer's NBK Zain Visa credit card or Visa prepaid card account.

The program will run from October 2009 to April 2010 and NFC software technology, including the NFC wallet, over-the-air (OTA) card provisioning software, smart posters and the mobile coupon application will be provided by US NFC m-payments services provider ViVOtech. Smart posters will enable consumers to collect retail offers that can be redeemed for purchases at partner outlets by tapping their mobile phone against the poster. Trial participants will also have the possibility of downloading a free Visa prepaid card by tapping the phone on a smart poster.