EMVCo, the payments chip card standards body owned by MasterCard, Visa, American Express and JCB, has revealed that there are now more than one billion EMV cards and 15.4 million EMV terminals in use around the world... More
Mastercard
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
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
‘Mobile wallet solutions are our top priority’ says PayPal boss
The company is to “develop software that transforms mobile phones and other devices into ‘digital wallets’ that consumers can use to buy merchandise, keep coupons and store loyalty program data.” More
Twinlinx to begin shipping MyMax NFC stickers in September
The first 10,000 MyMax stickers, which enable full NFC functionality to be added to any Bluetooth mobile phone, are now in production and field trials are expected to take place before the end of this year. More
Turkey’s Akbank and Visa Europe to test microSD NFC device
News of Akbank and Visa’s trial follows the announcement in May that MasterCard, Garanti Bank and mobile network operator Avea are to begin a commercial NFC service in Turkey this summer. 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
PTC, Inteligo and MasterCard test NFC payments in Poland
The 100 participants can use their Samsung NFC phones to make payments at any of 10,000 points of sale in Poland that are already equipped to handle PayPass contactless transactions. More
Discover, MasterCard certify new mobile contactless stickers from Inside and CPI
A new range of contactless stickers, designed to be attached to the back of a mobile phone, have been certified by MasterCard and Discover Financial Services... More
Oi Paggo to run NFC field trial in Brazil using Gemalto NFC add-on
Oi Paggo, the SMS-based mobile payments service owned by Brazilian mobile network operator Oi, is to run an NFC field trial using Gemalto’s Upteq N-Flex device later this year... More
Telefónica O2 launches its first commercial NFC service — and sets out strategy for future deployments
The mobile network operator is starting small with a limited rollout in the Czech city of Pilsen but a business strategy is now in place and commercial launches in the UK and Spain could be next. More
Garanti Bank and Avea to launch commercial NFC service in Turkey in July
The bank and the mobile operator plan to issue 100,000 customers with an NFC SIM+antenna solution that will allow them to make payments with their mobile phones at more than 15,000 retailers in Turkey this year. More
MasterCard, DBS Bank, StarHub and EZ-Link to test Gemalto NFC add-on in Singapore
Gemalto’s new Upteq N-Flex enables near field communication functionality to be added to a wide range of mobile phones and is the first NFC add-on to conform to the Single Wire Protocol. More
KDDI to run multiple NFC tests in Japan
The mobile network operator has partnered with card issuers, airlines, a cinema chain, a car manufacturer and others to run a series of tests of NFC standard technology and aims to introduce NFC services “in the near future”. More
Cassis opens up for business in the Americas, sees NFC market opportunities in Canada and US
Singapore-based trusted service management (TSM) specialist Cassis International has opened an office in New York, giving it a foothold in the American market for the first time... More
Alcatel-Lucent introduces turnkey pay-as-you-go mobile wallet platform for operators
The new Mobile Wallet Service is a software-as-a-service platform for mobile network operators that combines proximity payments, mobile marketing, ticketing, international remittances, P2P funds transfer and mcommerce services. More
Citi’s Bangalore trial: Offering cardholders phone subsidies can kickstart NFC transaction volumes
‘This pilot provides insights which will prove crucial to getting the customer experience right as we, together with the industry, bring next-generation mobile financial services to market,’ says Citi. More
NFC Forum spec adds digital signatures to prevent tag tampering
The standards body has published an important draft specification that will enable developers to protect NFC tags in smart posters and other applications from being tampered with or replaced with an imposter tag. More
Banka Koper begins NFC payments and promotions trial in Slovenia
Trial participants can use their Sagem Wireless NFC handsets to make payments and to collect information and promotional coupons from smart posters. More
China Mobile begins commercial rollout of mobile contactless payments system
RF SIMs are now widely available for subscribers to purchase from China Mobile stores and the first major retailer has signed up to accept the new mobile contactless payments technology. More