NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Wednesday they agreed to enter a capital tieup to offer a credit-payment service using DoCoMo mobile phones.
Under the deal, NTT DoCoMo will buy a 34 percent stake in the banking group's Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., the nation's second-largest card firm, for 98 billion yen, the two said.
The alliance will enable customers with DoCoMo handsets equipped with electronic-money functions to buy items by pressing their handsets onto reader boxes at shops that accept Sumitomo Mitsui cards.
"It will take about a year" before the new allies can start the mobile phone-based payment service, NTT DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura said. DoCoMo has about 49 million customers.
In parallel with the tieup, NTT DoCoMo said it intends to start its own credit card business by issuing DoCoMo-brand cards.