South African tech site TechCentral is reporting Absa, South Africa's largest retail bank, is looking to launch an NFC payment system as early as this year. The system will first be supported by contactless cards, but are intended to support NFC purchases using mobile devices as well.

According to the post, Absa Card CIO Cowyk Fox said that Absa "is seeing a shift away from credit cards to debit-based facilities." He said the bank's expanded options in this area mean those without credit cards will be able to shop online.

Fox also said that introducing NFC payments presents a "chicken-and-egg problem" for both consumers and retailers. Consumers won't adopt the technology before retailers install POS terminals and retailers are waiting to see enough devices in the hands of consumers before making the necessary ivenstments.

The post says Absa plans to have 4,000 NFC terminals in service by mid-2012 and that an announcement about the bank's plans will be made later this year.

For more stories on this subject, please visit the Contactless/NFC research center.