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.