Technology provider Morpho has announced it is the supplier of NFC SIM cards to a Portuguese mobile payments pilot that uses NFC phones as mobile POS terminals and is backed by the country's major telecoms operators as well as MasterCard and Visa.

MobiPag has been in development for two years and is designed to provide a way to drive down costs for merchants, eliminate cash and make the purchasing experience easier for consumers.

Based at the University of Minho, the project is sponsored by the Centre of Excellence for Dematerialisation of Transactions (CEDT) and supported by Portugal's three major mobile network operators — TMN, Vodafone Portugal and Optimus — as well as SIBS FPS, BPI, MasterCard Europe and Visa Europe.

A video shows MobiPag in action:

"This project is a great example of collaboration between the main entities of payment, telecommunications and technology companies," says Morpho's Yves Portalier.