Switzerland’s five largest banks, two leading retailers and incumbent operator Swisscom intend to jointly launch a mobile payment service later this year.

The five banks are UBS, Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Raiffeisen and ZKB, in addition to supermarket chains Coop and Migro as well as Swisscom, which is also the country’s leading mobile operator.

The five banks and financial infrastructure firm SIX will now set up a firm to build the Twint system, which will enable offline and online payments. It will be open to additional retailers.

Previously, some of the partners rolled out the rival Paymit system, but this will be combined with Twint once it is live.

In the past, at least one of those involved said the aim is to produce a unified front to foreign payment initiatives entering the country. None of the global services offered by the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung have so far reached the country.

Following an announcement earlier this year, the companies said they would update in early May. The current statement is consistent, although they are running a little behind schedule.