Vodafone, Visa and local bank BNZ are trialling the NFC-based contactless payments app called SmartPass in New Zealand.

The partners say the current trial will continue for a few months and will use the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One smartphones. SmartPass will be accepted at thousands of contactless terminals around the country.

The app has been jointly developed by the mobile operator and credit card firm and combines NFC and Visa’s PayWave technology.

The app functions as a mobile wallet, enabling consumers to load funds from any bank onto a SmartPass account which can be used to make payments with a NFC-based handset at any location where there is a PayWave terminal.

SmartPass will be made available in other Vodafone markets. Its first commercial launch will be in Spain later this year.