Canadian bank RBC and Bell Mobility, the country’s second largest mobile operator, are to launch a service that further heats up competition in the country’s payments market.

RBC’s mobile banking customers will be able to buy goods in shops using their debit or credit cards, so long as they have a compatible NFC-based smartphone from Bell Mobility.

The service will launch later this year, following a roadtest with selected merchants and consumers in the summer.

The new service will be integrated into RBC’s existing mobile banking app, appearing as a further option on the homescreen along with the bank’s P2P service that enables its customers to send money to other customers and business in Canada.

“This is the first piece of a broad RBC mobile commerce solution rolling out to clients this year, all delivering the great, robust user experience and the security that RBC is known for,” said Dave McKay (pictured), the bank’s group head, personal and commercial banking.

However the partners will not have the market to itself. The country’s largest mobile operator, Rogers Communications, last week gave an update on the progress towards issuing its own credit card.

In addition, Rogers previously launched an NFC-based mobile payment service in partnership with local bank CIBC.

The RBC-Bell Mobility service will work with certain NFC-enabled smartphones: the BlackBerry Z10, Q10, Bold 9900, Bold 9790 and Curve 9360, as well as a range of Android handsets from vendors including Samsung, Sony, HTC and LG.