Etisalat Afghanistan, the country’s fastest growing cellular operator, has announced the launch of its “mHawala” mobile financial services. Etisalat Afghanistan customers can use mHawala to make contactless mobile transactions at the point of sale, as well as purchase air time, pay bills and transfer funds to family and friends directly from their mobile phone. Users […]

AuthenTec has announced that its AES850 smart fingerprint sensor has been integrated into a new Fujitsu smart phone, the REGZA Phone T-01D. With AuthenTec’s AES850, the Android 2.3-based phone can be locked and unlocked via a quick scan of the user’s fingerprint. The sensor can also be used to control access to applications on the […]

Absa, the largest consumer bank in South Africa, has announced an internal trial of NFC-enabled contactless payments, according to IT News Africa. Scheduled to kick off later this month, the pilot will see 500 Absa employees equip their BlackBerry smart phones with NFC-enabled MicroSD cards that can be used to make contactless payments. Participants will […]

Cantaloupe Systems is gearing up to launch Google Wallet in vending machines across Chicago, San Francisco, New York and D.C., according to All Things Digital. So far the Bay Area start-up has installed NFC technology into 6,000 of the 80,000 vending machines in its network. Once complete, customers will be able to pay for drinks […]

The Netherlands will have to wait another year for the EU to approve its nationwide mobile payments scheme, according to the Register. A consortium comprised of six banks and telecoms – including ABN AMRO, ING, KPN, Rabobank, T-Mobile and Vodafone – originally intended to launch NFC-enabled mobile payments in 2012, but has now reset the […]

Fast food chain Jack in the Box has begun testing Google Wallet in 35 restaurants across Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to MobilePaymentsToday.com. Jack in the Box joins Subway as one of the first quick service restaurants to adopt the new service, which lets users pay for items and redeem coupons by tapping their […]

MasterCard and mFoundry have announced a partnership to enable more banks and credit unions around the world to offer customers contactless mobile payments. The collaboration will combine MasterCard’s PayPass technology with mFoundry’s mobile financial services platform, which is used by more than 560 U.S. banks and credit unions. The resulting service will allow customers to […]

Metro Inc. is partnering with Visa to bring payWave contactless payments to its chain of 600 grocery stores across Ontario and Quebec. Beginning early next year, shoppers at Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics will be able to pay for items with a tap of a contactless Visa credit or debit card against […]

Spanish mobile operator Telefónica and Research in Motion (RIM) have announced the launch of a contacless mobile payments pilot on NFC-enabled BlackBerry smart phones. With the help of local banks and retailers, Telefónica will roll out BlackBerry smart phones equipped with the company’s “Telefónica Wallet” mobile app to 350 employees at its headquarters in Distrito […]

Acer is planning to launch NFC-enabled smart phones for mobile banking and contactless payments, according to Taiwan News. Acer product manager Vincent Chen told TN that the new phones will likely run on Windows 8, which is expected to support NFC technology. According to Chen, the roll out will depend on how quickly the five […]