A new service in the United Arab Emirates will enable customers to pay in shops or online without cash, cards or their smartphones, using only their mobile number and a secure PIN.

The service, which is backed by the Dubai Smart Government initiative, will be deployed in 2016.

It has been developed by US vendor Quisk and will be rolled out by local financial services provider Network International across its points of sale in the UAE.

Quisk specialises in such services. According to the firm’s website, it deploys cloud-based technology that “not only works with any mobile phone number on any type of mobile phone, but also can leverage existing point-of-sale infrastructure”.

Its management team is made up of tech and payment industry veterans from CyberSource, Visa, Apple, and HP.

The firm describes its technology as “the superior alternative to mobile money”. It uses a mobile number and secure PIN for what it describes as a new kind of mobile money payment account.