Wide adoption of mobile wallets has been slowed by a major behind-the-scenes battle among corporations, says Drew Sievers, chief executive of mFoundry, which makes mobile payment software.

The cellphone is capable of holding all of the credit and debit cards crammed into a wallet. Instead of swiping a plastic card at the checkout counter, consumers can merely wave their phones.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, and JPMorgan Chase, working with Visa, are all in various stages of testing wallets. Apple and Google already have payment systems — Apple’s iTunes has 200 million accounts tied to credit cards, while Google Checkout has been less popular. Both could be turned into mobile wallets.

Mobile phone carriers, banks, credit card issuers, payment networks and technology companies are all vying to control these wallets. But first, they need to sort out what role each will play and how each will get paid.