Hungary’s three mobile operators and the country’s largest bank have launched a large NFC-enabled mobile wallet pilot, as part of a mobile wallet association they formed two years ago with MasterCard Worldwide and a large loyalty program operator.

Hungarian Telekom, Vodafone Hungary, Telenor Hungary, along with OTP Bank, MasterCard and SuperShop, launched a six-month trial last week. Hungarian Telekom, or Magyar Telekom, uses the T-Mobile brand and is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom of Germany.

The six parties formed the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association two years ago, with plans to coordinate NFC-enabled mobile-wallet launches. The group is not a joint venture, and each mobile operator has its own commercial launch plans for NFC, an association spokeswoman told NFC Times. At least one of the three telcos plans to launch commercially either late this year or early next year, she said.

“The association helps coordinate and bring in service providers, such as other banks and merchants,” she said.

The MobilTárca, or mobile-wallet, pilot will include up to 2,000 users, putting a MasterCard PayPass debit application issued by OTP on SIM cards issued by the telcos and available for use in at least six NFC-enabled Android phones.

Users will also be able to tap to collect SuperShop loyalty points with their phones, and they could also tap to redeem the points. The loyalty program is also stored on the SIM. Both collection and redemption require additional taps, said the association spokeswoman.

There are 17,000 point-of-sale terminals in Hungary that accept PayPass, about 20% of total POS terminals in the country. Only certain Hungarian locations of Netherlands-based SPAR food stores and Germany-based OBI do-it-yourself building supply stores are equipped with terminals enabling users to also tap to collect and redeem SuperShop loyalty points.

Project organizers hope to expand the number of acceptance points for the loyalty program and later would like to enable payment and point collection or redemption in a single tap.

Among the NFC-enabled smartphones the trial will use are the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy mini 2 and Samsung Advance, along with the Sony Xperia P, Xperia S and Xperia T. Others will be available, as well.

ANY Security Printing Co., the former state printing house in Hungary, is serving as trusted service manager for the pilot, said the wallet association spokeswoman.