Mark Ritzmann, Vodafone Group’s head of m-commerce, forecast by 2020, at the latest, Europe will have sufficient contactless terminals available “to make it possible to leave your leather wallet at home altogether”.

In a blog, Ritzmann said retailers are investing more and more in contactless payment terminals suitable for handling smartphone payments.

The availability of services such as that announced by Vodafone and PayPal at Mobile World Congress will spur investment in upgraded, NFC-enabled terminals, he suggested.

Vodafone last month became the first operator to enable contactless payments from a PayPal account. The service is available to users of the Vodafone Wallet.

The service launched in Spain where users can pay using PayPal at more than 710,000 stores including restaurants, shops and vending machines.

Spain will be followed by other European markets, although Ritzmann is cagey about where it will debut next.

Vodafone Wallet is currently available in Spain, Germany, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary.  In addition to PayPal, wallet users can also pay using Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards in those markets.