contactless payments

US Bank is launching U.S. Bank MasterCard® PayPass™ VITAband® service, a light-weight and durable wristband that combines contactless payment technology with emergency contact and medical information.

ANZ started a limited pilot test of mobile payments via NFC stickers and BlackBerry based micro-SD cards in New Zealand.

The bank is issuing MasterCard PayPass stickers and memory cards to staff to test the technology in retail locations. Earlier ANZ launched its first PayPass-enabled credit cards to consumers.

There are just several terminals that accept contactless payments in New Zealand including Westpac Stadium and Eden Park as well as Hell Pizza, St Pierre's Sushi and Corporate Cabs set to come onstream in July.

Barclaycard is launching the UK’s first commercial contactless mobile phone payments system in association with network operator Everything Everywhere. The launch is scheduled for this summer.

The companies said in a statement that they are working with the unnamed handset vendor to allow Britons to make low value payments at the point of sale by waving their phones against specially equipped contactless terminals.

Clear2Pay, a provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions, announced an agreement with Techso (Pty) Ltd., appointed by the South-African National Department of Transport (NDOT), in association with Keith Smith Consulting.

Mobile money solutions provider Monitise has partnered with ViVOtech for offering mobile phone payments services to banks across the United States.

As a part of the partnership agreement customers of participating banks will be able to turn their handset into a mobile wallet (linked to registered bank accounts, credit and debit cards) and purchase items using contactless payments at merchants with NFC capabilities.

A digital security company Gemalto has been selected by Japanese mobile communications provider KDDI to provide its User Identity Module (UIM) cards and Trusted Service Management (TSM) solution for their Near-Field Communication (NFC) program.
Within the period of May to December 2010 participants of the pilot program will be able to test various types of NFC payment services including mobile payments, transportation services, e-driver’s licenses, e-ticketing, as well as information acquisition from smart posters.

Visa Inc. is partnering with DeviceFidelity Inc. for marketing their joint solution that can enable a mobile phone with a memory card slot to be used as a Visa mobile payment device.

The new solution features a combination of Visa’s contactless payment technology, Visa payWave, and DeviceFidelity’s In2PayTM technology. Thus, a mobile phone equipped with a microSD memory slot turns into a mobile contactless payment device. This way consumers will be able to make mobile Visa payWave transactions at any retail location that accepts contactless payments.

The number of retail cashless payments grew by over 160% between 2000 and 2008, to 87 billion transactions. Of these, 90% were in western Europe, 10% were in central and eastern Europe and two-thirds were in the eurozone.

 Oberthur Technologies' contactless sticker product, FlyBuy Sticker, has been granted type approval by Discover Financial Services, a leading U.S. credit card issuer and global electronic payment services company. Discover's type approval process ensures that the Discover Zip contactless payment application properly operates on the FlyBuy Sticker and that it is also interoperable with Discover-certified payment terminals.

 DeviceFidelity introduced In2Pay, a microSD-based solution that is able to create an interactive contactless transaction device from any mobile phone with an available memory card slot. Compatible with near field communication (NFC) technology, In2Pay is already available fir trials with banks, wireless carriers and payment networks and has a wide range of production for commercial deployments in 2010. The evaluation agreements have been signed between DeviceFidelity and the largest card issuers in the U.S. In2Pay will be demonstrating at Cartes 2009.

 INSIDE Contactless and TWINLINX are working together on the integration of INSIDE's secure components in the TWINLINX MyMax NFC sticker and working to gain type approval of the sticker from the major bank card brands. TWINLINX is in discussions with major wireless carriers and transport operators in the U.S. and Europe and says it has already established agreements with a number of them. 

 Oberthur Technologies introduced Smart Lumiere, a light-emitting contactless card that emits light when it is entered in the field of a contactless reader. This way it informs the cardholder when a transaction is taking place. Smart Lumiere is the next step in Oberthur Technologies' pioneering work in the field of contactless payment devices. Smart Lumiere composes of a translucent plastic core, antenna and illuminating light apparatus and meets ISO 14443 dual interface contactless payment standards.

 MasterCard Worldwide, Credicard, Citibank’s credit card administrator for the Brazilian market, and Redecard have partnered for the introduction of MasterCard PayPass contactless payment technology in Rio de Janeiro. The initiative is aimed to enable customers to make payments at public transportation and other quick service merchants. According to the statement of MasterCard its PayPass technology is the first product launched for public transportation in Latin America. 

 INSIDE Contactless announced the launch of the MicroPass 6000 dual-interface intelligent payment processor, designed as an EMV-compliant platform providing both contact and contactless operation.

According to the official company statement the new product was specifically developed to target EMV markets in Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Canada as well as U.S. issuers providing dual-interface cards for cardholders traveling internationally.

 National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in association with Visa Inc have partnered with Zain telco operator for the first Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment trial in the GCC, using NFC enabled Nokia 6212 devices. The trial marks the first live EMV-Chip compliant Visa payWave NFC transaction in the GCC.