Spain-based banking group BBVA has signed up 250,000 customers for its BBVA Wallet service and is to expand availability to the US, Mexico and Chile this year. The wallet includes support for host card emulation (HCE)-based payments for customers with an NFC phone running Android 4.4 or later.

“BBVA Wallet continues to attract new users at a blistering pace,” the bank says. “It took just eight months to reach this figure since the app was launched back in December. Estimates indicate half a million BBVA customers may download this application by the end of the year.”

“These numbers make BBVA Wallet the most widely used mobile payment solution of any bank in Spain, and one of the most widely used in the world.”

“Our goal is to make BBVA Wallet a global product and make it available in every country in which we operate”, the bank’s Mehmet Sezgin adds.