The new service is to be called Isis, will be introduced in key geographic markets “during the next eighteen months” and aims to ultimately eliminate “the need for consumers to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes.” More
USA
US telcos hire GE Capital CMO to head mobile payments joint venture
AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have hired Michael Abbott, the chief marketing officer for General Electrics’ GE Capital card business, as the chief executive of their NFC-based US mobile payments venture, according to the Wall Street Journal... More
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Discover and Barclays to officially announce mobile payment joint venture plans
Confirmation that AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have formed a joint venture to introduce NFC-based mobile payments services in the US could come as early as tomorrow, according to a Reuters report... More
Bling Nation to launch national US mobile payments service in early 2011
Bling Nation is set to roll out its mobile payments technology across the United States in early 2011, Forbes reports, and also plans to launch its service in other countries next year... More
Bling Nation adds mobile rewards and Facebook integration to merchants’ POS terminals
Bling Nation has launched FanConnect, a new platform that enables merchants to offer mobile rewards and connect with customers via social networking services at the checkout... More
Bank of America NFC trial to focus on customer experience
Bank of America’s trial of DeviceFidelity’s microSD format NFC solution in New York will focus on the customer experience, the bank’s Michael Upton has told Bank Info Security in an in-depth interview... More
Visa lets New York commuters pay for their fares with mobile phones
Participants in a new pilot programme can pay for their travel on the Lexington Avenue subway line in New York, on the New Jersey Path system and multiple bus lines in New York and New Jersey with a contactless Visa card or an NFC-enabled mobile phone. More
Facebook distributes Bling Nation payment tags to staff amid rumours of a major Silicon Valley NFC plan
The Bling Nation NFC sticker trial in Silicon Valley has expanded from its beginnings at PayPal’s headquarters to include the Stanford University campus, Palo Alto city services and Facebook’s offices — as rumours of a major NFC play by some of Silicon Valley’s leading companies begin to emerge. More
First Data to offer turnkey NFC service to US banks from early 2011
The payments processing giant has signed a deal with Korea’s SK C&C, responsible for the technology behind SK Telecom’s mobile contactless payments service, and will begin offering a turnkey NFC payments service to US banks from the first quarter of 2011. More
Vivotech adds OTA provisioning to DeviceFidelity’s microSD format NFC device
Vivotech and DeviceFidelity have partnered to add over-the-air (OTA) provisioning capabilities to the In2Pay microSD technology to be tested by Visa, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, US Bank and Akbank... More
Wells Fargo to run NFC field trial
US financial services giant Wells Fargo & Co has become the fourth bank to reveal that it is to take part in Visa‘s series of NFC trials... More
Verizon invests in mobile loyalty and coupons specialist CardStar
Verizon Ventures has invested US$400,000 in mobile loyalty card and promotions start-up CardStar, The Wall Street Journal reports:... More
Bank of America to run NFC payments trial in New York
Bank of America will begin a field trial next month in partnership with Visa that will enable customers to use their smartphones to pay for purchases in stores, according to a Reuters news report... More
Federal Reserve leads US payments industry NFC initiative
The US Federal Reserve has been acting as the host for a series of meetings between US mobile network operators, banks and payments networks over the course of the last few months, Digital Transactions reports... More
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to test NFC payments in the US
US mobile network operators AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are planning to run NFC payments trials in Atlanta and three other US cities, according to Bloomberg... More
PayPal begins move into retail store payments with Bling Nation pilot
Online payments giant PayPal has partnered with Bling Nation for a trial that will see consumers being able to use their PayPal accounts to make payments in retail stores... More
US Bank to test NFC in Q4 2010
US Bank is to run an NFC pilot from the fourth quarter of 2010, Brandon McGee reports from the Mobile Banking & Emerging Applications Summit in Las Vegas... More
Bankers’ Bank of the West to offer Bling Nation’s payments service to its 330 member banks
Bling Nation has signed a deal with Bankers’ Bank of the West, a provider of correspondent services to more than 330 community banks in the Rocky Mountain and western states of the USA... More
Bling Nation signs up additional Colorado bank for mobile contactless payments
Community State Bank in Lamar, Colorado has become the latest local bank to offer Bling Nation’s sticker-based mobile contactless payments service to its customers... More
Facebook tests RFID-based location services — NFC on the way?
The All Facebook blog reports that Facebook is issuing RFID tags to all the delegates attending its f8 developer conference:... More