Wells Fargo & Co. is teaming up with Visa USA in an experiment aimed at transforming mobile telephones into electronic wallets, the Associated Press reported.

As part of a pilot program to be announced today, up to 50 Wells Fargo employees soon will begin paying for some products and services with specially equipped phones instead of credit and debit cards.

If those tests are successful, Wells Fargo then plans to ask 300 to 500 of its current customers to sample the mobile payment system, which Visa began building at the beginning of this year.

Wells Fargo’s customer tests won’t begin until fall, and Visa’s mobile payment system won’t be ready for widespread use until next year at the earliest.

Several major banking companies, including Wells Fargo, Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp., are developing new ways for customers to use their mobile phones to check account balances, transfer funds and pay bills, just as they have been able to do for years through personal computers.