Credit Valtellina already issues contactless Visa PayWave cards in Italy’s Sondrio province under the Tellcard brand name... More
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Mobile Payments in Eastern Europe to hit $9.4 billion in 2013
A new research report from IE Market Research Corp breaks down the total forecast into merchandise purchases, digital purchases, ticketing, money transfers, bill payment, and prepaid top-ups... More
Visa Australia ups contactless transaction limit to A$100 (US$87)
The rollout of contactless payments is gathering pace in Australia, with 500 merchants in Melbourne set to install contactless terminals this month... More
Korean card issuers plan MVNOs in bid to control mobile wallets
Two of Korea’s leading card issuers are seeking to launch their own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services, in a bid to ensure they are in control of their customers’ mobile wallets. More
BYU-Idaho students spend, spend, spend with their NFC phones
Students taking part in a new trial of micro-SD based NFC payments at Brigham Young University in Idaho have already used their phones to buy everything from candy bars to $1,600 laptops. More
Visa launches NFC trial in Brazil
The small scale payments trial, run in conjunction with mobile operator Claro and two banks, is one of several moves towards NFC now taking place in Brazil. More
Akbank and Turkcell test NFC in Istanbul
The small scale trial is being run in conjunction with MasterCard, Giesecke & Devrient, E-Kart and Venyon. More
NTT Docomo reports 10 million mobile credit card customers
There are now over ten million subscribers to NTT Docomo’s Osaifu-Keitai based mobile credit card payment service DCMX and, overall, a total of 30 million Docomo subscribers are now equipped with Osaifu-Keitai handsets. More
UK government, operators and banks agree NFC payments rules
New fraud prevention guidelines aim to ‘design out opportunities for crime and reduce harm to consumers,’ says the UK’s Home Office. More
Does Nokia have plans to launch its own NFC payments service?
The handset giant has submitted international trademark applications for a new brand name, ‘Nokia Money’, described as a financial transaction service providing secure transactions using a mobile phone at a point of sale. More
Telefónica launches O2 Money, says it is ready to deploy NFC
The new O2 Money offering is a low-tech prepaid card solution for now but, says O2, this is just the first step in the operator’s plans to be at the forefront of the move towards the rollout of NFC technology in the UK. More
Zapa to seed NFC stickers and terminals to ‘strategic retailers’
More details of the services to be offered by the Irish start-up, which secured €2.5m in funding earlier this month, have now been revealed. More
Citi launches NFC trial in India
The financial services giant has partnered with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and Vivotech to launch an NFC field trial in the Indian city of Bangalore. More
Sheetz to roll out mobile Go-Tags
Following a successful field test using NFC phones, the 350-unit US convenience store chain has chosen to go ahead with a roll out of contactless mobile payments — using contactless stickers produced by First Data. More
Bling Nation goes live in Colorado
The State Bank in Colorado has become the first bank to sign up for Bling Nation’s mobile contactless sticker-based local payments system. More
Belgacom and Alcatel-Lucent to develop open payments system
Belgacom’s PingPing and Alcatel-Lucent’s Touchatag are creating an open system that will allow consumers to use contactless cards, stickers or NFC phones to access services developed by a range of technology suppliers, operators and application developers. More
French banks, network operators publish Payez Mobile specifications
Following extensive field testing, the banks and mobile operators behind the NFC tests in Caen and Strasbourg have now published the functional and technical specifications for Payez Mobile applications. More
Dubai First and Du to run Middle East’s first NFC payments trial
The bank and the telecoms operator are to run a six month pilot in Dubai, ahead of a commercial NFC launch later this year. More
EMVCo takes first step towards NFC payments standards
The EMV payment standards body owned by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and JCB is inviting mobile operators, chip and handset manufacturers and application providers to a two day meeting designed to help shape EMVCo’s NFC standards strategy. More
DnB NOR and Telenor begin NFC field trial in Oslo
The Norwegian bank and the telecoms operator, which formed a joint venture last year to create an NFC trusted service manager for the Nordic markets, have begun a small scale NFC test that will be extended into Oslo city centre later this year. More