The wallet - slated to launch early next year in Germany and Spain, before arriving in other European countries - will use CorFire's CorPay technology for a wallet that will let users conduct "a number of transactions" including POS payments.

CorPay uses the Secure Element to encrypt and store personal account information and relies on a full client/server architecture that allows the support of phone change and SIM switching.

Christian Wirtz, director, m-commerce, Vodafone, says: "The consumer benefits of contactless payments are obvious and the industry in Europe is now at the beginning of rolling out a contactless infrastructure. The potential of mobile to transform existing industries - such as financial services, retail and transport- is enormous."

Meanwhile, Gemalto has been awarded the multi-year global contract to provide and operate a global Trusted Service Management (TSM) platform for Vodafone. Gemalto says it will provide "a range of innovative services that can address hundreds of millions of subscribers, located in all the countries where Vodafone Group operates".