The finalists for the 2012 Contactless & Mobile Awards, this year sponsored by Visa Europe and Telefonica O2, have now been announced. Honoring achievements across a wide range of sectors and countries throughout Europe and abroad, the finalists reflect the growing spectrum of uses and implementations of contactless and NFC technology. The finalists include: Competitive […]

TransCard, a provider of payment solutions for financial institutions, has received MasterCard PayPass certification for NFC-enabled contactless payment transactions. Financial institutions and corporate clients working with TransCard are now able to offer contactless payment programs that are either stand-alone or connected to an existing TransCard prepaid card account. The Tennessee-based company’s offerings include prepaid gift […]

Emirates NBD, the largest bank in the UAE, has announced the launch of the “MoneyMobile,” a contactless payment solution that will enable customers to pay for purchases with a single tap of an NFC-enabled device. Developed in partnership with local teleco Etisalat and trusted service manager Gemalto, the service will be accepted at Visa payWave […]

Mobile operator 3UK has asked the European Commission to investigate “Project Oscar,” a U.K. mobile payments joint venture from Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone, according to PCWorld. 3UK claims that the joint venture, which would enable customers to make payments using debit accounts on NFC-enabled handsets, is “discriminatory” in that the three companies involved account […]

Blaze Mobile has been awarded a new patent for mobile banking and payment transactions, covering any transactions that comprise bill payment, peer-to-peer (P2P) funds transfer and funds transfer between bank accounts and credit cards. In all cases, the patent covers the funding of the banking transactions using NFC technology. “After the deciding to perform the […]

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has announced that more than 120,000 customers have downloaded its Kaching mobile banking and contactless payments app since its launch in December, according to iTWire. Commbank did not disclose how many out of those 120,000 are using the app’s contactless payments feature, which requires iPhone users to buy an NFC-enabled iCarte protective […]

Mobile payments start up Boku has received $35 million in funding from Telefonica Digital, the tech arm of Spanish mobile operator Telefonica, and New Enterprise Associates among other investors. According to Boku, the funding will be used to broaden the company’s infrastructure and expend its operations, which includes the recently launched NFC mobile payments service […]

Less than a third of U.S. consumers would switch handsets in order to use their cell phones to make purchases, according to the latest Payment Report from Auriemma Consulting Group. Furthermore, ACG has found that just 23% of consumers would consider switching mobile telephone providers in order to obtain a phone that can perform mobile […]

Korea’s KT and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo have announced that their international NFC coupon service will go live on April 1. The first product to come out of last year’s agreement between the two telecos, the NFC “roaming” coupon service will enable KT subscribers traveling to Japan to use NFC coupons at select stores within Japanese […]

Samsung is preparing to enter the mobile commerce arena with an NFC-enabled mobile payments service in the works that offers contactless, online and remote payments, a source told NFC Times. Samsung’s service will run on existing contactless payment technology, such as Visa payWave or MasterCard PayPass, and will come embedded on the handset maker’s future […]