South Korean electronics giant LG is preparing to launch contactless mobile payments technology in Europe by 2012, according to Reuters.
In an interview, the firm's Jin-Yong Kim revealed LG is already beta testing point-of-sale technology featuring NFC and cloud computing that will be targeted at small and medium sized businesses.
The technology will let users pay for low value purchases at the check-out directly from their bank account by swiping a hand-held device over the reader.
With Barclaycard and network operator Everything Everywhere launching the UK's first commercial contactless mobile phone payments system this summer and Apple and Google both prepping NFC handsets, the technology appears set to take off.
New research from Frost & Sullivan suggests that the NFC market has moved from an 'innovator' to an 'early adopter' phase and from trial development to the first commercial roll out.
The company predicts that there will be 863 million NFC-enabled mobiles worldwide buy 2015 with EUR111.19 billion in payments made using them that year.
LG plans European mobile swipe payment system in 2012 - Reuters