Mar. 8, 2010—Having concluded what it deems the world's largest Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless payment pilot,Citibank indicates it believes there is strong consumer demand for mobile payment solutions. But with a scarcity of available NFC-enabled phones, alternatives such as NFC stickers or microSD cards may be necessary in order to get NFC deployments off the ground, the company reports. 

The pilot included 3,141 Citibank credit card holders who, at the company's initiation, purchasedNokia NFC-enabled 6212 mobile phones from participating Nokia shops, to pay for goods at 250 merchant locations in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India. Nearly 50,000 payments were completed throughout the 26-week span, which began in July 2009, and participants made purchases more frequently, spending a greater amount with each transaction while using the mobile phones than they did using ordinary credit cards (see Citibank Says High Volume NFC Pilot Shows Strong Usage).