Texas Instruments has announced the availability of a new secure multi-purpose contactless chip designed for the closed-loop contactless micropayment, loyalty, ID and access application markets. "TI's ISO/IEC 14443 Type B chip, called the RF-HCT-WRC5-KP221, combines processing speed, advanced radio frequency (RF) performance and industry-standard security with a flexible and configurable memory that supports up to five applications on one contactless card or token." READ MORE »

ViVOtech has announced that its NFC mobile payment wallet, Over-the-Air (OTA) payment, coupon delivery and redemption technologies are being used jointly by NETS, SingTel and United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) for an NFC mobile phone payment trial in Singapore. READ MORE »

MasterCard Worldwide has announced Rite Aid Corporation is now accepting MasterCard PayPass contactless payments. MasterCard PayPass will be accepted at 3,800 of the nearly 5,000 Rite Aid stores across the country. READ MORE »

Altair Financial Services International Plc has announced it has launched a MasterCard prepaid travel car for Tesco Personal Finance (TPF), the banking arm of the UK’s largest and world's fourth largest retailer. The Tesco Travel Money Card will join an assortment of financial products already offered by TPF including credit cards, loans, mortgages, savings accounts and insurance. READ MORE »

The Bancorp Bank has announced it has been selected by Obopay to issue prepaid payment cards linked to Obopay mobile payment accounts. The bank says "the new cards are available now and are accepted anywhere MasterCard debit cards are accepted and at more than one million ATM locations worldwide. The cards are linked to Obopay mobile money accounts, which users can access through any mobile phone using Obopay’s downloadable mobile application, text messaging, or mobile Web." READ MORE »

Moneybookers and Clickatell have announced a partnership to offer mobile SMS alerts on transactions to over 5 million Moneybookers eWallet customers. According to the companies, "Moneybookers customers can now receive text notifications directly to their cell phone anytime, anywhere, when purchases are completed, goods are mailed or money transfers are wired. This brings an advantage in terms of security, as customers always have an overview of the transfers on the account and can cancel unwanted transactions immediately." READ MORE »

A new analysis of the NFC mobile payments opportunity by Juniper Research forecasts that "700m mobile subscribers globally will have phones equipped with NFC contactless technology by 2013. NFC will enable users to make payments with their mobile phones for relatively low value purchases (such as refreshments, tickets and food)." READ MORE »

mFoundry has announced the availability of its iPhone mobile banking product. mFoundry’s financial services platform offers a cross-platform, cross-carrier solution for mobile banking, mobile payments and mobile wallets. READ MORE »

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