Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg reports from this week's CardTech/SecureTech Conference in San Francisco: "Even with all the press contactless payments has been getting, I was still shocked by the sheer dominance contactless payment solutions had at CardTech/SecureTech. Vendors from all over the world promoting their readers, reader components, cards, inlays, RFID stickers, etc. etc. etc. Standing by just about any booth, it didn't take long to hear someone ask the vendors "but what about contactless?"

Card Technology reports on a talk by Cathleen Conforti, a senior vice president at MasterCard and PayPass global product manager, at this week's CardTech/SecureTech conference in San Francisco where she said that consumers using their PayPass cards are paying with them 85% to 95% more often than they previously used their cards. “It’s definitely their top of wallet card,” she said.

American Airlines has announced it has introduced a new service to accept credit and charge cards for onboard purchases, in addition to cash, using wireless handheld devices. American will be the first U.S. airline with a global network to offer this option onboard all aircraft. The new payment acceptance capability is being supported through an expanded relationship with American Express.

Digital Transactions reports on steps being taken by Visa USA to have its debit card issuing members begin reporting PIN-based debit card fraud to Visa in June.

Following yesterday's release of its first quarter earnings, MasterCard has filed with the SEC Amendment No. 5 to its S-1 Registration Statement that includes for the first time a proposed maximum offering price per share of $43.

DiamondCluster has published a white paper by Hamilton Sekino, Amaresh Tripathy, and David Gates titled "MVNO 3.0: How a new breed of wireless providers will bring strong brands into the MVNO space" (PDF) that discusses the rise of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) such as Virgin Mobile and Mobile ESPN and looks at how the MVNO ecosystem could evolve to support other brands - such as financial services brands - launching their own private label mobile services. Imagine getting your next specially equipped mobile banking and payments-powered Treo from your credit card issuer or your retail bank!

The Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA) Journal published by Elsevier has issued a call for papers for a special issue to be published next year on the subject of mobile payments.

Richard Wray reports for the Guardian about the launch of LUUP, a new mobile payments company, in the UK and plans by the five mobile operators in the UK to launch their own service later this summer called Pay4It. See also LUUP's press release on its service launch in the UK and Germany.

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2006 Card Issuers' Identity Safety Scorecard saying it reveals a significant difference when comparing the performance of the top-rated and the bottom-rated credit card issuers in partnering with customers to protect against identity fraud.

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