O2 Germany will conduct a mobile payments trial for select customers of German bank Dortmunder Volksbank in early 2013. The bank will put its credit card into the O2 wallet on the customer’s mobile handset. The operator says this is the first credit card partner for the O2 Wallet, although it is unclear whether the operator means the first in Germany or the whole of Europe.

Telefonica Germany has actually struck an agreement with DG Verlag, a company that belongs to the co-operative FinanzGruppe Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, to enable the trial to go ahead. DG Verlag is a partner and service provider to Dortmunder Volksbank.

O2’s announcement says that in the future German bank customers will make payments via smartphones with NFC technology although it is unclear whether this capability will be available from the start of the trial early next year.