German tech company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) announced it will be providing NFC-capable SIM cards to Italian wireless provider Nòverca. The cards will be used for Italy’s first pilot project for mobile payments launched by Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, G&D said.

According to the announcement, 600 employees and customers of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo will be a part of the pilot program allowing them to make contactless mobile payments in Milan and Turin. Merchant acquirer Setefi, the payment unit of the Intesa Sanpaol Group, will provide more than 3,000 contactless point of sale terminals for the test.

While this is the first pilot in Italy, G&D has already been a part of 40 pilot programs worldwide, the company said.

"This project is an important milestone on the road to introducing mobile payments in the Italian market," said Willem Bulthuis, G&D's group senior VP for mobile security. "With access to 3,000 POS terminals, the smartphone users can opt for contactless payment for virtually any of their everyday purchases."

G&D said a newly developed line of NFC SIM cards are being deployed to ensure the security of transactions. The chips are also equipped with MasterCard PayPass technology to enable payment transactions. The cards will be installed in NFC-enabled Samsung Wave S5780 smartphones.

For more on this topic, visit the NFC/Contactless research center.