Semble, the mobile wallet backed by New Zealand’s operators and banks, is to discontinue its payment service, with plans to refocus the business.

The company announced the decision on its website, four years after launching, but said it “remains committed to bringing innovation to its mobile wallet platform and will refocus the business to develop and build new services”.

Backed by operators Vodafone, Spark and 2degrees, Semble offered people in the country the option of making a mobile payment from a device of their choice, and it was also usable on public transportation, as well operating a loyalty point scheme.

The operators are joint owners with Paymark, the local payment network owned by four leading banks in New Zealand – ANZ, BNZ, ASB and Westpac.

As of July last year, ASB and BNZ also added debit and credit cards to the Semble Wallet.

CEO Rob Ellis explained the decision in a statement, revealing that mobile payment services did not experience the speed of uptake and usage expected “for a variety of reasons”.

“These include low levels of consumer awareness of mobile payments and relatively low volumes of contactless terminals, especially outside the major retail brands, although contactless transactions in general are growing.”

Users will no longer be able to add new cards to the wallet, while existing customers “will be able to keep using the Snapper functionality on their phones for the foreseeable future”.

Snapper operates as a contactless payment system across the country, accessible in retail stores, buses, for parking metres and taxis.