HTC has confirmed a partnership that will support a mobile payments service in Taiwan and reiterated a call for local banks and bodies to support the venture.  It also announced the country’s first smartphone that enables users to make mobile payments, the NFC-enabled HTC Incredible E. News of the alliance was leaked earlier this week.  

The handset vendor will partner with Cathay United Bank and two card issuers MasterCard and local group Easycard to launch the service which involves users inserting a microSD card into the NFC handset so that they can make payments.

The HTC handset can be used with the partners’ card to make payments in 12,000 retail outlets in Taiwan through EasyCard and 350,000 stores worldwide through MasterCard, the vendor said.

However HTC argued that for a broader range of applications to boost the popularity of the new service there was a need for more of the country’s banks and its financial regulator to offer their support so that appropriate standards can be set, reports Focus Taiwan.