A new report from Research and Markets has found that the number of EMV payment smart cards in circulation in Canada is expected to reach 54.8 million this year, representing 43.6% of all payment cards in use. “EMV Migration in Canada: Opportunities and Challenges,” is an independent strategic analysis and forecast on Canada’s EMV migration […]

The independent IT consultancy Consult Hyperion joined the The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association aimed at advancing the use of NFC technology. The Forum carries out its work primarily through focused working groups of members covering its various areas of interest, and it promotes the adoption of NFC through open specification development, interoperability testing […]

NZSki, operators of New Zealand’s Coronet Peak, Mount Hutt and The Remarkables ski fields, is launching a new smart card system that will grant visitors access to lifts and equipment, as well as book lessons and buy concessions at the lodge, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. In addition to making a day on the […]

Rumors from Facebook’s F8 developer conference have it that Zuckerberg & co. may be adding NFC-based features to the social networking site, says pocket-lint.com. Visitors to the April 21st conference were issued tags to tap in and out of exhibits. Some believe this is Facebook’s way of testing the technology to develop a location tracking […]

Visa has bought e-commerce company CyberSource Corp. for $2 billion, indicating a significant shift in focus to mobile payment, according to americanbanker.com. “Mobile is clearly a growing and important channel for us,” affirms Gerry Sweeney, Visa’s head of global e-commerce and authentication. Cali-based CyberSource boasts more than 295,000 merchant clients and, according to the company, […]

INSIDE Contactless, Sagem Orga (Safran Group) and TazTag today announced the joint development of a new method of delivering NFC payment functionality. Based on TazTag’s TazCard, the new device, which is currently in pre-alpha testing, provides full NFC functionality for contactless payment and other applications. About the size of an ordinary credit card, the TazCard […]

The Smart Card Alliance Health Care Council released a new brief today on the rising threat of medical identity theft, calling for the use of two-factor authentication with smart card technology as the ideal way to protect patient identities and information. According to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, nearly 1.5 million Americans have […]

Motorola is looking for mobile operators in India to trial its new iSIM (intelligent SIM) solution, says Telecom Yatra. The iSIM is a flexible 0.4mm thick device that attaches to a phone’s existing SIM card to turn the phone into an NFC-enabled payment tool. The device, which is compatible with all SIM cards, also allows […]

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced the launch of a new Combi card, which would function dually as a fare card for public transportation and credit or debit card, according to Khaleej Times. The card will feature two micro-chips, one of which will hold the functions of the existing Nol smart transit pass, […]

GlobalPlatform, the international specification body for smart card infrastructure, has released a report analyzing the implications of managing multiple secure chips in a single mobile handset to deliver NFC services. The white paper, titled “GlobalPlatform’s Requirements for NFC Mobile: Management of Multiple Secure Elements,” identifies two different business models and details the functional requirements needed […]