The project aims to develop the dematerialization of payments with the use of personal mobile devices as an automatic payment terminal. Morpho supplied its NFC Evolution SIM cards to the three Portuguese mobile operators in the national consortium that drives the project. Morpho is the first card supplier to take part in this NFC initiative in Portugal.

The project is driven by a consortium of companies and organizations and sponsored by the Center of Excellence for Dematerialization of Transactions (CEDT), a private non-profit association. The major goals of this consortium are to reduce the use of banknotes and coins and to drive down the costs of electronic transactions through the use of mobile infrastructures. The consortium's ultimate objective is to implement a nationwide mobile payment solution.

Yves Portalier, Senior Vice President Telecoms at Morpho, e-Documents Division, stated: "NFC mobile payment offers many advantages - greater convenience and easier management of transactions are just two examples. We are proud that Morpho supports the MobiPag project both in a consultancy role and as the sole card supplier with our NFC Evolution SIM card. This project is a great example of collaboration between the main entities of payment, telecommunications and technology companies. It is great news for our teams to be a part of the MobiPag project."

Paulo Carvalho e Silva, Managing Director Morpho Cards Portugal, noted: "It is an honor and privilege for Morpho to actively participate in MobiPag, a national project with international relevance, both through consulting support and by making NFC smartcard technology available to the consortium - particularly our NFC evolution SIM cards and tools for mobile application development."