The SmartWallet is the first of the NFC commercial launches that would begin under an NFC interoperability project overseen by the Infocomm Development Authority, Singapore’s telecoms and information technology regulator. IDA chose a consortium of companies led by France-based TSM Gemalto and including Singapore’s major mobile operators and two large banks to roll out the interoperable NFC infrastructure. The IDA had set a tight deadline to of eight months following the award of the contract to the consortium last October for consortium members to launch at least three payment applications. With the StarHub SmartWallet launch, consortium members would meet that mandate, though they are a little bit behind the deadline.