87% of contactless cardholders in the UK, Poland and Turkey believe contactless cards will be “instrumental in bringing mobile contactless payments to market in the near future,” according to Visa Europe‘s latest Contactless Barometer survey... More
Visa
Seventeen cities shortlisted for €20m French government NFC grant
The funding will be used to build out an NFC transport ticketing infrastructure in Paris and other major French cities as national NFC standards are finalised and carriers prepare to rollout NFC payments services across France this year. More
Isis picks Gemalto for NFC mobile commerce platform
The core trusted service management (TSM) platform to be used by the US NFC joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless will be provided by France-based Gemalto. More
Absa begins South Africa’s first NFC pilot
The trial will see five hundred bank staff using BlackBerry NFC smartphones to make MasterCard PayPass payments, and the technology used will in future also support the country’s national transportation ticketing technology. More
Bank of New Zealand tests NFC
BNZ and Vodafone have begun a three month NFC payments pilot in New Zealand... More
Gap tries out Google Wallet
Shoppers at more than 65 Gap Inc stores in San Francisco’s Bay Area can now use Google Wallet to pay for purchases and collect rewards and offers... More
Visa unveils V.me wallet brand
The payments giant’s digital wallet is to be called ‘V.me’ and will launch in 2012 as a payment system for online transactions, with NFC at the point of sale and targeted rewards, offers and coupons set to follow. More
VeriFone buys Point in move to managed services
VeriFone has acquired electronic payments specialist Point International from Nordic Capital for €600m (US$812m) as the POS terminal maker accelerates its transition to a managed services revenue model... More
French bank tries iPhone NFC
French bank Credit Agricole is launching a contactless payment trial in Caen... More
Commonwealth Bank brings iPhone NFC to Australia
The bank has unveiled ‘Commbank Kaching’, a next generation mobile payments service that lets iPhone users easily send money to their Facebook friends, email contacts and phone contacts as well as make payments in stores via an add-on NFC case. More
Visa tests NFC in Iceland
Icelandic payments processor Valitor has teamed up with Visa and Oberthur Technologies to run the country’s first mobile payments pilot from January 2012. More
NJ Transit to enable Google Wallet users to buy tickets with NFC
New Jersey Transit has become the first public transportation operator to announce plans to enable travellers to pay for fares with Google Wallet-enabled NFC phones. More
Coke mulls NFC for Olympics
Coca-Cola is in talks with Visa to put contactless payment equipped vending machines into the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Games, reports Marketing... More
Patco tests open loop transit card
A 12 month pilot of the first open loop payment card to be issued by a transportation operator is now underway in the Philadelphia/New Jersey region of the USA... More
Visa hires GSMA director
Gavin Krugel has become the latest GSM Association staff member to join Visa... More
Olympics NFC phone to go global
The Olympics-branded NFC phone announced by Visa and Samsung in March is to be available worldwide, Pocket-Lint reports... More
Oz to get NFC ‘within months’
NFC payments could arrive in Australia as soon as the new year... More
New Broadcom chips signal next stage of the mobile wallet wars
The company’s new NFC controller chips allow multiple secure elements to be active on a single phone at the same time, making it possible for consumers to use both a mobile wallet supplied by a mobile network operator and a mobile wallet supplied by a bank, handset maker or operating system supplier. More
Collis launches one stop NFC testing shop
The company’s new Mobile Test Centre enables NFC solutions to be checked for compliance with specifications set by a wide range of industry associations and standards bodies. More
Visa signs global licensing deal with Google
Google and Visa have signed a deal which will allow Visa-issuing banks worldwide to add credit, debit and prepaid accounts to Google Wallet. More