Windows Phone 8.1 will increase the level of control users have over NFC payment cards provisioned to their NFC SIM when it ships in mid-2014, according to a series of leaked screenshots, as well as provide a way for users to speed up NFC tag interaction times... More
Three French banks will launch national NFC services in partnership with carriers this year, the new president of the association responsible for bringing NFC to market in France has told NFC World — but transforming consumers into active and frequent users will be critical to success. More
Canadian carrier Telus is to provide its employees with the ability to access buildings, log on to company networks and securely share sensitive data using an NFC phone... More
The SD Association (SDA), the organisation responsible for setting memory card standards, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the NFC Forum “to jointly educate the market and help build the ecosystem for NFC among users of smartSD memory cards”... More
Alfa-Bank and mobile network operator Kyivstar have begun testing the Ukraine’s first NFC mobile payments service... More
Royal Bank of Canada has introduced an NFC mobile payments service that stores customers’ card details in the cloud... More
Spain’s La Caixa bank is to introduce a commercial NFC mobile payment service in partnership with Visa Europe and the country’s three leading mobile network operators — Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange... More
Vodafone Germany has launched its Vodafone SmartPass NFC mobile payment app in the city of Düsseldorf and plans to expand the service across the country during the first quarter of 2014... More
Qualcomm has introduced a 4G LTE chipset that is designed to be used in smartphones costing under US$150 and includes support for NFC... More
Mobile network operator China Telecom is to launch an NFC mobile wallet in China later this year, in cooperation with more than a dozen financial institutions... More
Brazilian mobile network operator Vivo has chosen Gemalto as its trusted service manager (TSM) for its NFC payments service in Brazil... More
SimplyTapp, the US startup which created Host Card Emulation, bypassing the need to use a carrier controlled SIM-based secure element in NFC transactions, has raised a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners... More
An SWP & HCI compliance test suite from Galitt and Keolabs has been qualified by standards organisation GlobalPlatform... More
STMicroelectronics has introduced the ST33G1M2, a secure microcontroller that can be used as an NFC secure element, either embedded into a mobile device or integrated into a SIM... More
Mobile network operator Swisscom, ID company Legic Identsystems and security specialist Kaba are working together to create an NFC ecosystem that will allow businesses across Switzerland to easily integrate NFC-based access control and time and attendance recording services... More
Dutch bank Rabobank is set to commercially launch an NFC mobile payments service in the Netherlands next year... More
Testing specialist Fime has been accredited by Visa to validate implementation of the Visa Mobile Payment Application on secure elements... More
Mobile network operator Orange is to roll out a national NFC payments service in France next year under the Orange Cash brand name, enabling NFC phone owners to use a prepaid card stored on their handset to pay for goods at Visa PayWave contactless terminals... More
Rio de Janeiro is set to become the first city in Brazil to pilot an NFC ticketing service for public transportation... More
China Mobile has seen a take-up of 2.5m NFC handsets, 600,000 SIMs and 1.4m NFC-enabled POS terminals, the carrier’s Liu Xin has revealed at the GSMA’s NFC & Mobile Money Summit in New York... More