On the web:

• Dwolla Says It Wants to Compete With Credit Card Networks - ABC News
• Blink and It s Gone: Chase Drops Contactless Brand from Cards - American Banker
• Facebook Makes More Global Payment Methods Available to Buy Facebook Credits - ZDNet
• Swedish Operators to Form Mobile Payments Joint Venture - Mobile Europe
• Remote Deposit Capture: If You Expand It, Will Fraud Come? - Portals and Rails
• 28 Indicted in Theft of Credit Card Data at Steakhouses - NYTimes.com
• Lockbox: Still Crazy After All These Years - Celent Banking Blog

On the wires:

• U.S. Bank Customers Get Mobile Remote Deposit and Mobile P2P Payments
• Jollibee Launches Its Online Payment Service with AsiaPay (Philippines)
• Payair Rolls Out US Mobile Payment Services

U.S. Bank has announced VITAband, a light-weight and durable wristband that combines contactless payment technology with emergency contact and medical information.

The VITAband allows customers to simply “Tap & Go” when making purchases at merchant locations that accept contactless payments. It also links to a customizable Emergency Response Profile (ERP) that provides medical professionals with fast access to critical medical information in the event of an emergency. U.S. Bank employees began testing the VITAband in multiple states in the second quarter of 2011, making U.S. Bank one of the first major card issuers in the United States to pilot this new technology.

U.S. Bank has announced its "release of a dual interface payment solution that offers enhanced acceptance and compatibility with credit cards systems worldwide. The new U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa credit card combines Visa payWave, EMV chip, and magnetic stripe technologies, enabling customers to have the best experience possible wherever they use their cards."

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that by the end of 2012 readers across the whole TfL network will have been upgraded so that a touch of a contactless bank or credit card will allow passengers to pay for travel on the bus, Tube, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), Tram, and London Overground network.

Visa Europe and Wireless Dynamics have announced that they have developed a mobile contactless payment solution that will bring Visa contactless payments to iPhone users across Europe.

iPhone users simply attach the Wireless Dynamics iCarte accessory, available through their bank or mobile operator, to their iPhone and download the companion Visa Mobile application for iCarte App from the App Store.

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• SOFTBANK MOBILE in Japan Selects Gemalto for Mobile Contactless Payment Trial
• ThreatMetrix Achieves Record Revenue, Billings, Transactions, and Customer Growth in 2010
• Main Street Softworks Inc. Adds Credit Card Enhanced Data (Level III) Reporting Features
• ValidSoft Technology Targets Belgian Bank Card Fraud Crisis
• ProPay Partners with 3DCart to Provide Merchants a Complete Set of eCommerce Tools
• Mitek Seeing Strong Deployment of its Mobile Remote Deposit Capture Application
• BPC Banking Technologies and Banca Transilvania Introduce Western Union Transfers through ATM´S

• New York Times: Now at Starbucks: Buy a Latte By Waving Your Phone
• Portals and Rails: Retail Payments Risk Forum Hosts 4th Annual "Emerging Risks in Emerging Payments" Conference
• eMarketer: In-App Purchases Become Major Mobile Revenue Stream
• Cult of Mac: iPad Cash Register Arrives at Grand Central Coffee Shop

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Intuit GoPayment and mophie Credit Card Reader Available for iPhone 4
• RushCard Allows Members to Customize Card Plans and Further Reduces Card Fees
• Tom Joyner Partners with PreCash to Offer The REACH Card

• Treasury&Risk: Wires Get Smarter
• VentureBeat: Five Payment Trends to Watch in 2011
• TheStreet: American Express Faces Declining Credit Card Use
• Dow Jones: Global Payments To Enter Brazilian Card Market
• Datamonitor Blog: New Visa Initiative Will Raise Awareness of Contactless Payments Among London Consumers
• Springwise: Mobile Payment App Verifies Identity with a Photo (FaceCash)

Visa Europe and its technology partner, Emue Technologies, have announced the commercial availability of a contactless payments-enabled version of its Visa CodeSure integrated card and authentication solution.

The Visa CodeSure card has gained market acceptance very quickly, with the world’s first commercial launch announced by Cornèr Bank (Switzerland) in November 2010. Prior to this, trials were undertaken with a broad range of participants including BarclayCard, Yapi Kredi (Turkey), IW Bank (Italy) CAL Bank (Israel) and DKB (Germany).

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Discover Begins Rollout of Contactless Devices to Consumers
• Commidea Leads Contactless Transactions Adoption in UK
• INSIDE Contactless Launches SecuRead System-in-Package for NFC Mobile Devices
• iPayDNA and Payment Network AG (aka sofortüberweisung.de) Establish Business Partnership
• GlobalCollect Obtains License Pursuant To European Payment Service Directive

• Wall Street Journal: Card Issuers Reward Purchases
• MIT Technology Review: Shopping via Text Message
• MediaNama: Seven Indian Banks Launch P2P Interbank Mobile Payments; How It Works
• New York Times: For PayPal, the Future is Mobile
• ArcticStartup: Fortumo Expands To Thailand
• China Business News: China UnionPay Expands Services in Switzerland
• Reuters: EU Set to Accept Visa Europe Antitrust Offer
• Digital Transactions: Retailers See Gift Cards Boom As They Stress Reloadability
• GlobalTimes: Alipay Tops 500 Million Users
• Portals and Rails: Prepaid in the Mobile Channel - Balancing Financial Inclusion and Risk Management

Last week, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson asked the Payments Views community about its perception of contactless POS reader deployment in the US.

The results are in and you can see them here.

Over on our sister PaymentsViews.com blog, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson is asking for community input regarding the perception of deployment of contactless POS readers at merchants in the US market. If you can spare a minute, please take Carol's quick survey - and optionally sign up to receive a copy of the results!

According to Visa Europe news release, the number of Visa contactless cards issued in the UK currently stands at 8 million and is expected to reach 12 million by end of 2010. Visa Europe notes that, "This landmark follows the rise in the contactless transaction limit from £10 to £15 earlier in the year." READ MORE »

Seven players in the Near Field Communication (NFC) ecosystem, Ericsson, Gemalto, NXP, Oberthur Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Venyon, and ViVOtech have announced they are forming a MIFARE4Mobile Industry Group that will "enable its members to collaborate and work together to standardize and advance the uniform management of MIFARE™ applications on NFC-enabled secure elements, such as SIM cards, and mobile phones." READ MORE »

First Data Corporation and INSIDE Contactless have announced the introduction of a MasterCard PayPass contactless payment tag product. Based on INSIDE’s MicroPass payment platform, the companies say that "the new MasterCard PayPass mobile payment tag product offers a cost-effective solution for enabling mobile phones with contactless payment capabilities, and will be marketed and sold to MasterCard licensed financial institutions and card issuers." READ MORE »

The NFC Forum has announced the winners of the NFC Forum Global Competition 2010: NEXPERTS and PharmaFabula

The NFC Forum Global Competition promotes the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services by both commercial and academic developers. The Commercial Track is for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want. The Research Track is open to the academic community, including university student teams and institutions. READ MORE »

Interac Association has announced it has "successfully carried out a series of contactless debit transactions using Scotiabank debit cards and TD Merchant Services’ point-of-sale terminals. The new contactless enhancement of Interac® Direct Payment, called Interac Flash, increases the functionality of Interac branded debit cards by leveraging dual interface chips that give cardholders the ability to carry out a point-of-sale debit transaction using the contact or contactless feature of the card." READ MORE »

Lamar, Colorado-based Valley National Bank has announced it is now offering mobile payments to its customers and community using Bling Nation's tap-and-pay for purchases at the point of sale. READ MORE »

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PATH), NJ TRANSIT (NJT) and MasterCard have announced the launch of a six month pilot program in which MasterCard PayPass will be accepted for fare payments on select train and bus routes throughout New York City and New Jersey. According to the companies, the service "enables riders of the three transit systems to purchase fares and transfer between transit systems simply by tapping a single type of contactless credit or debit card or device." According to a press release, the service will be "available exclusively to MasterCard PayPass customers during the first two months of the trial" before being opened up to other payments brands. READ MORE »

The Consumer Payments Research Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has released a new public policy discussion paper titled "Mobile Payments in the United States at Retail Point of Sale: Current Market and Future Prospects" authored by Marianne Crowe, Marc Rysman, and Joanna Stavins. From the abstract:

Although mobile payments are increasingly used in some countries, they have not been adopted widely in the United States so far, despite their potential to add value for consumers and streamline the payments system. After describing a few countries’ experiences, we analyze the prospects for the U.S. market for mobile payments in retail payments, particularly the use of contactless and near-field communication technologies. ...

DeviceFidelity has announced the availability of In2Pay™ - combining DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD technology with a "patent-pending protective case that adds mobile contactless capability and works with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G." DeviceFidelity and Visa collaborated to combine Visa's PayWave contactless payment technology with DeviceFidelity's In2Pay technology. READ MORE »

INSIDE Contactless, Sagem Orga and TazTag have announced the joint development of a new method of delivering NFC payment functionality. Based on TazTag's TazCard, the new device is currently in pre-alpha testing and, according to the companies, "demonstrates the feasibility of an option that facilitates NFC contactless payment transactions while providing full NFC functionality for other applications as well." READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has announced the availability of two new white papers to help transit agencies who are planning to upgrade their fare collection systems. The white papers are: "Planning for New Fare Payment and Collection Systems: Cost Considerations and Procurement Guidelines" and "A Guide to Prepaid Cards for Transit Agencies". READ MORE »

First Data Corporation has announced an agreement with Tyfone to provide SideTap micro secure digital (MicroSD) memory cards equipped with Tyfone’s patented technologies to enable most mobile phones with a memory slot to function as a mobile contactless payment device. READ MORE »

Edgar, Dunn & Company has announced the release of "Citi Tap and Pay mobile NFC proximity payments pilot - Bengaluru, Results & Findings" by Samee Zafar and Pascal Burg. The white paper discusses the Citi Tap and Pay pilot service launched in Bengaluru, India in July 2009. According to the company, "with over 3000 customers, 250 merchant locations and nearly 50,000 purchases made, the recently concluded 26-week pilot is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive next-generation contactless credit card payments pilot ever undertaken based on Near Field Communications technology." READ MORE »

EnStream LP has announced a wireless payment sticker trial based upon the Zoompass Tag, a wireless payment device designed in the form of a sticker that can be attached to a mobile phone. Enstream says that "the Zoompass Tag ushers in the future of mobile payments by allowing consumers to tap their phones at checkout to make purchases at retail stores."

Last year, EnStream launched the Zoompass mobile application and began offering Canadians a mobile wallet. Available at www.zoompass.com and accessible on most mobile phones in Canada, Zoompass allows users to send money to friends and family from their mobile handsets.

In an article titled "Colorado town leading the way with contactless payments, rewards" on NFCNews.com, Ed McKinley writes about the experience of The State Bank of La Junta Colorado with the contactless debit payment system provided by Bling Nation. He writes: "The bank, merchants and townspeople are committed to the convenience, consumer rewards, low merchant fees, tight security and community spirit of wireless debit payments, says Brad Rose, a State Bank of La Junta vice president and IT security officer."

Visa and DeviceFidelity have announced plans to market a solution that can enable a mobile phone with a memory card slot to be used as a Visa mobile payment device. According to the companies, "the solution combines Visa’s contactless payment technology, Visa payWave, and DeviceFidelity’s In2PayTM technology to transform a mobile phone with a microSD memory slot into a mobile contactless payment device. This can enable consumers to make mobile Visa payWave transactions at any retail location that accepts contactless payments. Trials are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2010." READ MORE »

The GSMA, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Telefónica, and Visa, together with Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa, have announced "the arrival of contactless mobile payments at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. The companies unveiled the result of months of collaboration and have brought the first ever SIM-based NFC payments pilot to Mobile World Congress." READ MORE »

An international consortium of payment and wireless industry leaders have announced their participation in a field trial being conducted by Banka Koper to bring SIM-based NFC mobile payments to Slovenia. CASSIS International, INSIDE Contactless, Sagem Orga and Sagem Wireless, in cooperation with Mobitel, the leading mobile service provider in Slovenia, have provided Banka Koper with the payment infrastructure and applications for this trial, which will run through June 2010. READ MORE »

INSIDE Contactless has announced it is making its Open NFC™ commercial-grade NFC protocol stack available in a free and open source edition under the Apache™ License, Version 2.0. According to the company, "INSIDE’s Open NFC 3.4 is available now for WinCE 6.0 (compatible with Windows™ Mobile 7) and Linux 2.6 platforms, and an Android™ implementation will premier with the planned release of Open NFC 3.5 at the end of March." READ MORE »