The long-predicted convergence between telecommunications and banking took a step toward reality this week when the first tests of a secure mobile payment system were announced.

Visa, the credit card organisation, has teamed up with Nokia, the Finnish telecoms group, to test a jointly-developed system designed to allow consumers to pay for goods on the Internet using bank details stored in their mobile telephone.

The project, using banking services from Merita-Nordbanken in Finland, will be used to develop standards for payments and security.

The partnership will give a big boost to attempts by banks to encourage consumers to use the wireless application protocol (Wap) standard to carry out banking while on the move. But it also marks the first attempt to move customers away from plastic cards since they were launched in 1958 by Bank America.

Instead, credit card details as well as debit card and, potentially, electronic cash will be stored on a second microchip in the phone.

"The direct link between the Internet, telecommunications and payment is the most exciting thing happening at the moment," said Mr Hans van der Velde, president of Visa's European region.

The move coincides with an agreement between Sonera, the Finnish mobile phone operator and MasterCard International, Visa's arch-rival, to develop secure mobile phone payment methods.

Mr Harri Vatanan, head of Sonera SmartTrust, said: "Putting a major payment brand like MasterCard in a mobile device is going to be the starting point for rapid growth of global wireless secure e-commerce."