The news: Curve Wallet will compete with Apple Pay on iOS devices in Europe, breaking up Apple’s monopoly on the iPhone’s NFC tech.

How we got here: The European Commission ruled that Apple must open its mobile wallet architecture to competitors last July. 

Apple made the tech available to developers last October, opening up the US, the UK and five other markets for buildout.

• Vipps, a small Norwegian payments startup was the first to launch an iPhone tap-to-pay app. 
• PayPal rolled out a contactless payments presence in Germany this month.