Near-Field Communication (NFC)

A wider array of payment cards and more finely targeted advertising are among the features and capabilities the Isis mobile-payments venture previewed on Thursday for possible launch in 2014, following the venture's national rollout. In pulling back the curtain, however, the venture, which is backed by mobile-network behemoths AT&T Mobility, …

Independent sales organizations and other acquirers could exploit Google Inc.’s move to decouple mobile payments based on near-field communication technology from a phone-based secure element, observers say. At the same time, much depends on how the mobile carriers, which have held tight control over the secure element, react to Google’s …

For two years, Google Inc. and Verizon Wireless have been at odds, with Verizon blocking the online search giant’s access to SIM cards on Verizon devices for Google Wallet. But on Thursday Google released a new version of its Android mobile operating system that not only slices through that Gordian …

  Large merchants that work with AJB Software Design Inc. to handle their payments-technology integration have a new option to use for outsourcing their payment needs. They can use TNSPayDirect, a new service from Transaction Network Services Inc., which provides access to an AJB retail transaction switch. AJB’s retail transaction …

Microsoft Corp.’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia Corp.’s handset business, announced late on Monday, brings to the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant a pioneer in near-field communication technology and allows it to combine hardware with a mobile operating system in the manner of rivals Google Inc. and Apple Inc. It remains …

Nearly 90% of U.S. point-of-sale terminals will be ready to accept Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards by 2017, according to a new Aite Group LLC study. The report examines the reterminalization of card-acceptance locations triggered by the payment card networks’ plans announced in 2011 and 2012 to wean America off of …

Lackluster adoption has prompted a major research firm to make a sharp downward revision of its five-year projection for mobile payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology. Worldwide NFC payments volume will reach $22 billion by 2016, down 40% from the original forecast released a year ago, says Gartner Inc. …

Visa Inc. is teaming up with the hot smart-phone manufacturer Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to kick-start the market for near-field communication (NFC) payments, and it’s also got a deal with technology provider Roam to develop mobile payments. Under an agreement with South Korea-based Samsung that Visa announced Monday, banks and …

  Digital wallet? Try explaining that concept to your grandmother. New research from comScore Inc. says that very few consumers understand what a digital wallet is and even fewer have used one, the notable exception being PayPal Inc. The November study by the Internet data-measurement firm found that only 51% …

n Passbook? The topic of Apple Inc.’s loyalty application didn’t come up Wednesday afternoon when the leading Silicon Valley tech company’s top brass discussed their latest quarterly results, which stock analysts found disappointing. But some smart-phone industry observers see evidence that Apple is laying the groundwork for a full-fledged mobile-payments …