Bloomberg reports that China Mobile may be about to buy a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank at a cost of 40bn yuan (about $5.9bn).

The move, if confirmed, would give China Mobile’s new RF SIM-based mobile payments service a foothold in the banking services sector. It follows SK Telekom’s purchase of a 49% stake in Korean card issuer Hana Card and China Unicom’s move to launch a commercial NFC service in Shanghai — and is part of a trend that we expect to become widespread as banks and mobile network operators move towards the commercial deployment of NFC and mobile contactless payments services.

Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions