Orange UK has launched Orange Cash, a prepaid account that can be used at any MasterCard accepting merchant equipped with a contactless point-of-sale terminal... More
WNIP
UK to get five ‘exclusively NFC payment-based towns’ by end 2011
The UK’s mobile network operators are working on plans to establish five exclusively NFC payment-based towns, where all card accepting merchants would be equipped with contactless point of sale terminals, Charlotte Blanchard, director of products and services at mobile network operator 3, has told IT PRO... More
Libyan mobile operators test new NFC solution from Nokia Siemens Networks and MoreMagic
LPTIC (Libya Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology Holding Company) has begun a four month NFC payments trial, in conjunction with Al Madar and Libyana, the country’s two leading mobile operators... More
Belgian banks and mobile operators to launch SMS and NFC mobile payments service in 2011
Belgium’s mobile network operators have joined forces with the country’s financial sector with the aim of introducing SMS and NFC based mobile payments by the end of 2011... More
Visa Europe signs mobile payments partnership deal with Monitise
Visa Europe has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Monitise to develop and supply mobile payments services for Visa Europe’s member banks and financial institutions across Europe... More
Yapi Kredi Bank and Turkcell to launch NFC payments service using Visa’s iPhone add-on
A survey conducted by Visa Europe in the UK, Italy, Poland and Turkey in advance of the launch has found that 87% of iPhone users would be willing to attach an add-on to their phone in order to make mobile payments. More
MasterCard and Telefonica team up for major Latin America mobile payments project
The payments network and multi-national mobile network operator are to form a joint venture which will develop mobile financial solutions in the twelve countries in Latin America covered by Telefónica’s Movistar brand. More
Isis appoints head of marketing
Isis has appointed Ryan Hughes as its chief marketing officer, responsible for marketing the NFC mobile payments joint venture to merchants, advertisers and other businesses across the US, All Things Digital reports... More
Google poaches top payments exec Osama Bedier from PayPal
Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of product development and a key player in the company’s move towards mobile payments, has joined Google... More
Apple planning to offer merchants low cost NFC payments terminals?
The Apple NFC rumour mill has swung into action again today, with new speculation that the company plans to include near field communication in both the next iPhone and the next iPad — and could be planning to offer heavily subsidized or even free NFC payments terminals to merchants in a bid to kickstart a mobile payments service... More
Most French consumers not in favour of mobile payments
Despite plans for a major expansion of the high profile pre-commercial NFC trial in Nice and Orange’s ambitions to sell 500,000 NFC phones this year, a survey of French consumer attitudes has found that the majority are not in favour of using a phone to make payments. More
Schmidt: Mobile money is a key part of Google’s strategy for 2011
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt has explained that mobile money is one of three key areas of focus for Google in 2011... More
Google job ad confirms plans to enter payments market?
Google has begun recruiting a ‘Technical Account Manager, Mobile Commerce’ who will be involved in building partnerships with merchants, card issuers and POS solution providers — indicating clearly that the internet giant plans to make a move into the mobile payments market... More
Softbank stickers bring mobile payments to iPhone 4 in Japan
The Japanese mobile network operator is to provide a range of stickers compatible with the Edy, Waon and Nanaco payments services from February, enabling iPhone 4 users to make use of Japan’s well established mobile payments services for the first time. More
Monitise and Vivotech offer joint NFC solution to US banks
Monitise and Vivotech have partnered to offer banks in the United States an NFC payments solution that combines Vivotech’s over-the-air (OTA) software and Monitise’s Mobile Money technology... More
Visa certifies DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay NFC microSD add-on for commercial deployments
The payments network’s new compliance testing system means that Visa can now certify other devices and phones with built-in NFC functionality “in a heartbeat”, the company’s head of mobile product development has told NFC World. More
Avea and Garanti Bank launch commercial NFC service in Turkey
Turkish consumers can now buy an NFC add-on that comes with a built-in prepaid card account which they can use to make payments in stores and on public transport and to receive digital coupons. More
Discover begins national roll out of contactless stickers
Discover Financial Services has begun issuing Discover Zip contactless credit cards and stickers to select cardholders... More
Sprint investigating multiple mobile payment options
Mobile network operator Sprint, the only major US operator not involved in the new Isis NFC payments project, says it is now looking at a number of different ways to offer mobile payments — in collaboration with banks and other card issuers rather than in competition with them... More
Bank of America to issue contactless stickers next year
Bank of America plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers next year, PaymentsSource reports:... More