PC Financial and TD Bank are to join their Canadian compatriots with the launch of a mobile wallet combining payment and loyalty programmes, dubbed Ugo, in 2014.
Canada's largest retailer, Loblaw Companies Limited has joined as its first retail partner and also brings its popular PC Plus loyalty programme into the wallet.
Ugo will initially allow customers to load their TD Visa, President's Choice Financial MasterCard and PC Plus cards onto an NFC SIM card on Blackberry and Android smartphones. The firms plan to add more partners and additional device platforms in future releases.
Barry Columb, president of President's Choice Financial, says Ugo will allow customers to "easily and conveniently use their President's Choice Financial MasterCard, while also earning and redeeming their PC points in one single tap transaction at their favourite Loblaw or banner store locations."
The collaboration between the two banks is the first of its kind in Canada. Rivals CIBC, RBC and BMO have each gone their own way, forging partnerships with Rogers, Bell, and Monitise respectively.
Rogers, meanwhile, has announced plans to introduce its own 'suretap' wallet, the first mobile wallet from a carrier in Canada, "in the coming weeks". The wallet will be available on select NFC-enabled smartphones and will offer a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard and gift cards from select national retailers as the first cards available for download.
Commercial availability of Ugo is slated for the spring of 2014.