Epayments outfit Wave Crest will provide and operate the core banking platform upon which the new prepaid card and mobile wallet services will run. Wave Crest will also manage the security and online customer experience.

FIS has been contracted to manage transaction processing and customer service, while Intelligent Environments has been appointed to develop the wallet application. Payments will be transacted over the Visa Europe network.

Capabilities planned for the wallet include m-commerce, airtime top ups, contactless / NFC payments and peer-to-peer payments.

"These partnerships take us another step closer to the launch of commercial mobile wallet services," says James Le Brocq, managing director, financial services at O2. "We are working with the best partners in their respective fields to bring a high quality service to market under the O2 Money banner. We look forward to unveiling additional partners in the coming months."

The Telefónica subsidiary set up a personal finance unit in 2009 and partnered high street bank NatWest to launch Visa pre-paid cards. It has also participated in contactless mobile payments trials for London's Oyster card.

However, the telco has been liaising with the Financial Services Authority for the provision of an e-mony license that will enable it to offer financial services and facilitate payments without a banking partner.

Le Brocq says O2 will initially look to relaunch its prepaid Visa card product with contactless capabilities over the new platform. The wallet application will follow later, pre-embedded in the carrier's handsets and available as a download.