LAUNCH: Alfa's Assaad Kairouz, MasterCard's Ann Cairns, Bank Audi's Randa Bdeir and Nadim Khater from Touch announce Tap2Pay at MWC 2014 in Barcelona

Lebanon's Bank Audi has partnered with MasterCard and mobile network operators Alfa and Touch to introduce the country's first NFC payments service.

The new Tap2Pay service will go live "later this year" and Bank Audi is planning to increase the number of contactless terminals installed in the Lebanon from today's 2,100 to 3,000 by the end of 2014 to support the launch.

Alfa is working with Gemalto on the deployment while Touch is working with Oberthur. Both carriers will enable customers to check their transaction history and change their passwords from their NFC phones, as well as make payments.

"Lebanon offers tremendous opportunities in the mobile innovation space and there is a high customer demand for services that deliver more choices and greater convenience," says Assaad Kairouz, Alfa's chief commercial officer. "We are confident that the contactless technology, which we will launch with our trusted partners, will help us shape a new payments landscape in Lebanon that brings ease, security and speed to transactions."

"MasterCard's technology and know-how coupled with Bank Audi's customer base and merchant network are key ingredients to a successful payment endeavor," adds Nadim Khater, chief commercial officer at Touch. "Tap2Pay's advantage is that it delivers a convenient, fast and secure payment method that is bound to gain popularity with customers."