Sprint and Google have announced the rollout of Google Wallet to all Nexus S 4G customers.

“Sprint is thrilled to be the first U.S. carrier to offer Google Wallet,” said Fared Adib, vice president of Product at Sprint. “Nexus S 4G is the first to receive new versions of Android software, and today’s upgrade puts the near-field communications, or NFC, chip in the phone to work so customers can have a secure virtual wallet on their phone. NFC capabilities on smartphones open the door to a new level of convenience and security.”

At launch today, Google Wallet supports Citi MasterCard credit cards and the Google Prepaid MasterCard, powered by First Data. Google says it plans to support additional cards.

Visa Inc., Visa Europe and Google have announced that Google has received a worldwide license to Visa payWave, Visa's NFC-based payment technology.

The agreement sets the stage for Visa-issuing banks worldwide to enable Visa account holders to add their credit, debit and prepaid accounts to Google Wallet -- a mobile application that turns a smart phone into a digital wallet. This is the latest effort by Visa and Google to simplify the consumer shopping experience by enabling them to make mobile payments using their mobile phones.

Fiserv and Wells Fargo have announced they are "delivering advanced foreign currency exchange capabilities through WireXchange from Fiserv, a flexible automated solution for completing end-to-end wire transfers."

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness shares his thoughts on the current state of play of mobile payments in the US market.

The traditional players are zigging – away from mag stripe card technologies (with, perhaps, the exception of Citi and its work with Dynamics) toward a world of NFC/contactless payments. Meanwhile, it seems that PayPal isn’t waiting for that world. Instead, it’s zagging toward a speedier implementation of, arguably, a new and convenient way to pay that’s card-less and avoids the requirements of rebuilding so much of the payments ecosystem.

Dynamics Inc. has announced 'Chip And Choice' technology that brings the the firm's multi-purpose, dynamic card capabilities to the world of EMV.

Dynamics’ Chip & Choice™ technology includes two chips – a secure, embedded chip and an exposed chip. A user can select different payment options by pressing different buttons on the card. Dynamics’ secure, embedded chip then writes a different, temporary chip profile into the exposed chip based on the user’s selection. In doing so, a user can select and use different payment applications even with readers that do not support such applications. This level of flexibility, unique to Dynamics payments cards, negates the needs for costly infrastructure updates in order to deliver powerful new functionality to merchants, networks, card issuers and consumers.

On the web:

• Google Taps George Costanza as 'Google Wallet' Pitchman (Video) - PCMag.com
• MasterCard Defends Google Wallet Ahead of Its Official Launch - AllThingsD
• Carriers Increasingly Laying Claim on Android Market through Direct Billing - telecoms.com
• Turkcell Ramps Up Mobile Payments Technology - NFCNews

On the wires:

• Bottomline Technologies’ Paymode-X Network Reaches 150,000 Vendors
• Visa’s Yearly Payments Volume in Latin America and the Caribbean Grew to 26.2%
• E-Debit Global Corporation Launches Proprietary Mobile Payments Platform
• eLayaway Connected to 14 Million Consumers, Including Military Families and Federal Employees
• BillShrink Changes Its Name to Truaxis
• Fiserv to Produce Personalized EMV Cards
• FleetCor Enters Mexican Fuel Card Market