Naomi Snyder writes for the Tennessean.com about a new Tennessee law that says "gift cards sold in Tennessee can't expire fewer than two years after purchase, and they can't carry purchase or redemption fees" - however, those restrictions don't apply to multi-merchant cards. Snyder reports on the efforts of the Tennessee Bankers Association who lobbied to have financial institution-issued gift cards handled differently.

Sheila Marikar reports for ABC News on the use of MasterCard's PayPass techology to make contactless payments at vending machines - with no signing or swiping.

Karen Dearne reports for Australian IT on the joint venture announced last week by Nokia and smartcard supplier Giesecke and Devrient "that aims to offer consumer applications, such as credit cards and public transport tickets, wirelessly downloaded from the internet to NFC-capable devices."

Digital Transactions reports that "PayPal will start rolling out its so-called virtual debit card to “hundreds of thousands” of users some time this month in a process it expects to complete by the end of August." Using software from Orbiscom that is downloaded by the consumer, a single use MasterCard Debit account number is generated which can then be used at any MasterCard accepting ecommerce merchant. No changes are required by merchants to handle these transactions - effectively extending PayPal's reach to essentially all off-eBay ecommerce merchants.