NFC vendor Giesecke & Devrient and Phison Electronics, a flash memory chip supplier, have dissolved a joint venture set up to support mobile payments via microSD cards.

The partners invested an estimated EUR3 million in Giesecke & Devrient Secure Flash Solutions, according to NFC Times. Its operations will now be reintegrated into its two parents.

The venture, which was set up in 2009, is thought to have been 70 per cent controlled by G&D.

Its original strategy was to produce microSDs with an embedded antenna that could enable payments to be made from non-NFC handsets. The venture then switched approach to developing microSDs that connected via a single-wire protocol to the NFC chips in handsets, said the same report.

Existing delivery obligations will be met, said the venture, but it is not taking new orders. However the partners said it is “currently more effective to support the relevant business directly by themselves rather than by the joint venture”, indicating they still see some kind of market in this area.