The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and the BlackBerry Curve 9360 are the world's first SIM-based NFC smartphones to be MasterCard PayPass approved, Research in Motion has announced.

What this means is that the devices have met the financial giant's guidelines and, as such, any MasterCard PayPass-issuing bank will now be able to offer MasterCardPayPass-enabled accounts to the SIM card of these smartphones.

Basically this will turn your BlackBerry into a mobile wallet, in much the same way that the Samsung Wave 578 offers NFC action with Orange and Barclaycard.

"MasterCard is proud to be the first to certify these popular BlackBerry smartphones for mobile payments, and offer consumers another simple, easy, safe and convenient way to pay," said Mung Ki Woo, group executive, Mobile at MasterCard Worldwide. 

"In card payments, MasterCard has long been a leader in the testing and certification of products – for the benefit of customers, issuers, merchants and acquirers. 

"We are delighted to extend this leadership role into the mobile payments arena and applaud RIM’s efforts to usher in the next phase of NFC adoption by delivering compliant devices to the market."

Orange France Telecom is already backing the BlackBerrys and with the network already offering similar platforms in the UK through Barclaycard, we're hoping the Mastercard version will make the jump across the channel too.

In the meantime, check out: