On the web:

• Google Wallet Now Available on Four NFC Handsets - Wired.com
• VeriFone’s SAIL Caught Copying Rival Square’s User Agreement - GigaOM

On the wires:

• VeriFone Media Brings Sky News into London’s Taxis
• ZipZap Launches Cascading Payments Solution for Online Merchants
• SafetyPay Introduces Cash Payment Option for eCommerce Merchants
• MyClear Appoints MOLPay as its Acquirer for Online Merchants (Malaysia)
• Smart Card Alliance Expands Industry Collaboration With Formation of Mobile and NFC Council
• POS Portal to Distribute Ingenico POS Devices for EMV and NFC Mobile Payments
• Wolfram Releases New Computational Software Platform for Finance

SmartCard Alliance 2012 Payments Summit

The 5th annual SmartCard Alliance conference will be held February 8-10 at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

FinovateEurope 2012

The FinovateEurope 2012 Conference returns to London on February 7th, 2012 at the Old Billingsgate Market Hall in the heart of London.

Discover PAYMENTS 2012

The NACHA Payments 2012 Conference will be held April 29-May 2, 2012 in Baltimore, MD at the Hilton Baltimore.

EMV chip technology and the future of payments in the U.S. are the subjects of a new white paper recently released by the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council. The paper describes the current state of the payments infrastructure in the United States and identifies actions that stakeholders would need to take to move the whole country to EMV.

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Foregenix launches FScout Enterprise to Help Organizations Achieve PCI-DSS Compliance
• Smart Card Alliance to Provide Full-day Open Bank Card Payments Workshop for Transit
• Acculynk Bringing PaySecure to the Mobile Channel

• SpringWise: SwipeGood: Rounding up Credit Card Purchases Creates a Monthly Donation to Charity
• postalnews blog: USPS to try selling gift cards at post offices
• Digital Transactions: Acquirers Will Benefit from Durbin, But Gain Could be Short-Lived
• BostInnovation: Mobile Self-Checkout AisleBuyer Looks to National Retailers in 2011

Mobile phones are becoming so prevalent with consumers today that marketers are increasingly using these devices to send coupons, promotions and loyalty-based offers directly to consumers' phones. The topic of “mobile marketing” and the related privacy and security considerations are addressed in a new white paper recently released from the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council entitled “Chip-Enabled Mobile Marketing”.

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 »

The NFC Forum has announced it has formed liaisons with three industry-leading organizations key to the NFC global ecosystem: EMVCo, the GSM Association and the Smart Card Alliance. According to the forum, "these liaisons broaden and strengthen the NFC Forum's collaborative ties with key associations and standards bodies across the NFC ecosystem. As a first step in the liaisons, the Forum has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each organization that outlines how they will collaborate to further the development of the NFC market and NFC-based solutions." READ MORE »

EMV/chip technology will be the topic of a January 2010 webinar from the Smart Card Alliance, featuring speakers from Aite Group, Bank of Nova Scotia, KeyPoint Consulting and Visa on the reasons behind the global migration to this technology, and the possibilities for U.S. adoption.

The free educational webinar, "Top 10 Reasons for Considering EMV in the U.S," will take place on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time/10:00 a.m. Pacific time. To register, please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-events-top-ten-reasons-us-should-consider-emv. READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance has released a new white paper titled "Fraud in the U.S. Payments Industry: Fraud Mitigation and Prevention Measures in Use and Chip Card Technology Impact on Fraud" developed by its Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.

"Criminals are known to exploit the weakest link in a payments infrastructure. With issuers in the rest of the world moving to EMV, it is likely that criminals are going to move counterfeit card activities to the U.S., attacking both U.S. and international issuers," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "If the United States wants to avoid an incoming tide of higher loss, the industry must be willing and able to make investments in emerging technologies." READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance has published a new position paper titled “End-to-End Encryption and Chip Cards in the U.S. Payments Industry" that "proposes an alternative to end-to-end encryption, protecting cardholder data by using chip card technology, but in a different way than has been considered in the past."

Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, said "In our paper we discuss a different approach optimized for the U.S. payment market: using contactless chip cards, including a dynamic cryptogram with each transaction and authorizing transactions online. This stands in sharp contrast to previous considerations of implementing 'chip and PIN' based on the full EMV standard. Instead, this proposal builds on what is already happening in the U.S. -- the issuance and merchant acceptance of contactless cards -- while keeping in step with globally interoperable EMV standards." READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance's Contactless and Mobile Payments Council has published a new research paper titled "Issuer and Merchant Best Practices: Promoting Contactless Payments Usage and Acceptance" that identifies issuer and merchant best practices for driving consumer use of contactless payments. READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the agenda for the CTST The Americas 2009 Conference being held May 4-7, 2009 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. READ MORE »

The SmartCard Alliance has announced a new white paper titled "What Makes a Smart Card Secure?" that was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payment Council’s Security Work Group "to provide an overview of smart card security features and other security designs inherent in smart card-based systems." READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance has announced that its Contactless Payments Council will expand its focus to include the topics of Near Field Communications (NFC) and mobile payments - renaming itself to the Contactless and Mobile Payments Council. It also announced new officers and steering committee, recent achievements, and upcoming projects. READ MORE »

In a press release, the Smart Card Alliance reports that "after two years of fast growth in contactless payments, the verdict is in: Once consumers try contactless, they like it! And with large issuers including American Express, Chase, Citibank, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and many others issuing contactless cards, the number of users is growing fast." READ MORE »

A new webinar series produced in partnership by the Smart Card Alliance and the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) will hold its first webinar on the topic of "Smart Cards in Mobile Payment/Near Field Communications (NFC)" on September 25th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. Registration is available for the event at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-events-web-seminars. READ MORE »

According to the Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payments Council, "eighty-six percent of industry stakeholders believe NFC-based proximity payments will be adopted, and it will happen with a “Collaboration Model,” bringing together banks, mobile operators, merchants, handset manufacturers and other service providers. The Council has published a new research report detailing its findings including various stakeholders’ opinions on potential new sources of revenue from advertising, loyalty and rewards, co-branding arrangements, and customer fees for new services. READ MORE »

In his column this week titled "A Primer on Smart Cards", David Pogue writes for the New York Times about smart cards - saying that "smart cards have always fascinated me, especially when I read about their potential for streamlining small cashless purchases." Pogue interviews Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has announced publication of a new white paper, "Serving Unbanked Consumers in the Transit Industry with Prepaid Cards” , that examines how transit agencies can serve "unbanked" or "underbanked" individuals, including both the traditional approach of establishing retail sales outlets for fare media and a potential new approach of using network-branded prepaid cards. READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance has begun offering a new online course titled "Fundamentals of Smart Card Technology". The online training course takes about six hours to complete and costs $99 per participant.

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the 2008 award winners for "Outstanding Smart Card Achievement" (OSCA) in the North American and Latin American smart card industry during its annual conference, taking place at the CTST 2008 The Americas Conference and Exhibition in Orlando this week. READ MORE »

The Smart Card Alliance’s first annual Payments Councils Summit held recently in Salt Lake City, Utah, reviewed the growth of contactless financial and transit payment markets in the US.

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has published a new white paper titled "Co-Branded Multi-Application Contactless Cards for Transit and Financial Payment" that describes "an approach that leverages co-branded card marketing programs and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology. The white paper is intended for mass transit agencies that are considering implementing a new contactless fare payment program or enhancing an existing program through collaboration with the financial community. It is also intended for financial payment card issuers, processors, and service providers who are considering working with mass transit agencies."

The Smart Card Alliance has published an FAQ on contactless payment security that applies "only to contactless payment using contactless smart card technology, as implemented by American Express, MasterCard and Visa." A PDF version is also available.

According to the Smart Card Alliance, "the vigorous take up of contactless payment in the United States and its future in mobile phones, plus a Mount Sinai Medical Center initiative to give patients control of their own health and hospital registration information, highlighted the Alliance's annual conference."

The Smart Card Alliance has published a new white paper titled "Mobile Payments: Leveraging NFC and the Contactless Financial Payments Infrastructure" that concludes that "proximity mobile payment – because it leverages the well-established infrastructure of the financial payments industry, and because it is based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and the ISO/IEC 14443 standard – will become the mobile payment technology of choice for consumers using mobile phones for retail payment transactions in the United States."