Portland, Ore.-based mobile financial service company Tyfone is working with OnPoint, a credit union also based in Portland, to offer a new mobile wallet product called iCashe Mobile Wallet, the company said in an announcement. The iCashe Mobile Wallet lets OnPoint's mobile banking customers buy gift cards via their smartphones and send them using SMS text messaging or email.

OnPoint is the first credit union in the U.S. to offer the iCashe Mobile Wallet, the announcement said.

The announcement said that more than 50 retailers, from Nike to Land's End, are participating in the program. Customers who receive the electronic gift cards can use them in-store or online, using either their mobile devices or a printed copy of the card.

In a post on the Credit Union Times, OnPoint SVP Jim Armstrong said the initial investment to get the program up and running was small and that the credit union is already looking ahead to adding NFC functionality to the gift card program at some point.

The may be no rush for NFC, though. According to the post, Armstrong said the FI is ahead of its members with the iCashe program, but said OnPoint was selling giftcards almost as soon as the program was launched.

According to the CU Times, OnPoint is the largest credit union in Oregon with more than 226,000 members and $2.9 billion in assets.

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