China MerchantsBank Co Ltd, or CMB, and the Taiwanesecell phone manufacturerHTC Corp together released the mobile-payment product called "CMB wallet", which will allow consumers to spend money by placing their phones near a device known as a point-of-sale machine.

　　The "wallet" can be used to make payments in small sums, and CMB is planning to make it capable of processing large payments - those involving as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,900), for example - next year, said Liu Jianjun, director of the bank's retail finance headquarters.

　　The central bank is expected to publish new mobile payment standards for financial institutionsat the end of December, and the "CMB wallet" will be the first product to meet the new standard, said Hu Tao, deputy general manager of retail banking at CMB, which is helping to draft the rules.

　　Chinese lenders have been looking at the mobile payment market as a possible additional source of revenue in recent years, a time when they have been required to hold more capitaland have seen interest rate spreads narrow.

　　The agreement between CMB and HTC over the "wallet" project is not an exclusiveone, and both companies are in negotiations with other lenders or handsetmanufacturers such as Samsung Group and Apple Inc, said Liu Jianjun, adding that CMB is also in talks with mobile carriers to incorporate the "wallet" function directly into SIM cards.

　　"We haven't found that we can sell more of these devices than our rivals simply by saying we have near-field communication technology," said Ray Yam, president of HTC China. "Only by taking steps early on can we seize more of these opportunities."

　　英語快訊：招行聯手HTC手機廠商在市場上暢銷的3款HTC手機上預裝招行“手機錢包”，購買這種手機的招行客戶只需去銀行柜臺激活一下，即可使用小額非接觸式支付功能，在銀聯“閃付”POS機上完成支付。這是行長馬蔚華近期多次提出消滅“信用卡”觀點后，招行正式推出的移動支付手段。目前，隨著移動互聯網爆炸式發展，搭此順風車的移動金融開始加速。不過，受制于“閃付”POS機受理環境及手機和銀行卡兼容性影響，“手機錢包”的應用目前仍處于嘗試階段。