MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom have announced a European partnership to enable consumers to use their mobile phones to pay at the point of sale.

The first consumer roll-out will take place in Poland later this year. Also this year German consumers will be introduced to mobile payments, initially in a trial with mobile phone tags and cards, continuing into the first half of next year with a mobile wallet service which will also be open to other issuing banks and partners. Deutsche Telekom will issue the MasterCard products via its subsidiary company ClickandBuy, the owner of an e-money licence. Products will also be launched in other European markets.

American Express has announced its network roadmap to advance EMV chip-based contact, contactless and mobile payments for all merchants, processors and issuers of American Express-branded cards in the U.S.

“The payments industry is continuing to evolve rapidly, and American Express recognizes the growing demand for chip-based contact and contactless payments in the U.S.,” said Suzan Kereere, Senior Vice President and General Manager, American Express Global Network Business. “We also fully recognize the complexities involved in migrating to EMV chip-based technology, and our first priority is to provide choice and flexibility for merchants and our card-issuing partners so they can adopt the EMV solution that best meets their needs.”

On the web:

• LoveBucks, A New Subscription-Based Monetization Platform For Online Publishers - TechCrunch
• Ben Milne, Dwolla - Taking On the Entire Banking Systems - Inc.com
• Are Portable POS Devices Coming To A Table Near You? - Portals and Rails
• Personalising Online Prices: Identifying Which Customers Will Pay More - The Economist
• mPowa - Like Square But For Corporations - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Citi Expands Mobile Alerts For Global Commercial Card Clients
• Merchant Warehouse's 'Genius' Offers Device and Operating System Agnostic Payments API