Mobile operator Orange finally confirmed this week it will become a bank. Orange is expanding into digital banking to grow revenues on top of its core cellular business.

Orange Bank now offers mobile payments by smartphone, money transfers by SMS, and an app to run the "bank in your pocket". For now, the service is only available in France.

To use the full suite of smartphone banking for tap-and-go payments, you need NFC connectivity on your smartphone. But not all smartphone models contain NFC today...

Our Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT) service recently found half of the top smartphone models sold in France did not contain NFC. Orange may find some banking services may be restricted to some consumers.