The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data next year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

The chatter coming from the industry near the end of last year was that 2011 would be when mobile card acceptance and payments finally emerge as legitimate experiences for consumers and merchants in the United States.

The Reserve Bank of India has removed the daily limit on mobile transactions to help boost India’s mobile payments market.

A Canadian independent sales organization is offering its merchants a proprietary mobile-payment acceptance device that other Canadian ISOs also could sell.

Verizon Wireless’s decision to prevent Google from providing its Wallet mobile payment app on the new Galaxy Nexus smart phone, has not gone unnoticed in Washington.

In the evolution of Near Field Communication-based mobile payment technology, 2011 was a big leap forward for NFC handset distribution. But experts are stopping short of calling it an unqualified watershed year in NFC development.

Banks have been much maligned for nickel-and-diming their customers, but in another area–cardholder fraud protections–they are being praised as consumer champions.

Persuading consumers and merchants to shun the traditional way to pay and accept payment for goods and services using plastic remains Dwolla Corp.’s chief goal. But the company also is working to plug some holes in its service.

Mobile wallets have turned into vital payment tools for consumers in many African nations thanks to M-Pesa. Hoping to take advantage of this trend, Western Union Co. is expanding its mobile funds-transfer service to Tanzania to accommodate users who also subscribe to Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile wallet.

Mobile wallets have turned into vital payment tools for consumers in many African nations thanks to M-Pesa. Hoping to take advantage of this trend, Western Union Co. is expanding its mobile funds-transfer service to Tanzania to accommodate users who also subscribe to Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile wallet.

Someday, such a thing as an alternative payment no longer may exist.

A year ago, banks expressed an interest in mobile banking and payments during discussions with Fiserv Inc. This year, those that have not already made a real play to support the technology appear ready to do so, Fiserv says.

Visa Inc. may be preparing to debut its ties to Google Inc.’s Google Wallet mobile-payments scheme in London at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, sources suggest.

Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are just starting to rev up their marketing engines for their daily-deal services. Groupon Inc. and LivingSocial are the mainstays for now, but all four companies soon will face competition from PayPal Inc.

Various technology and banking analysts have identified mobile banking as a hot area for new and expanded information-technology investment, with Ovum and Celent, for example, both placing mobile high on their list of bank IT priorities for the next year.

The silence is almost deafening.

Mobile and online payments startup Zipmark has secured $2 million in funding from a group of venture capital firms and others, the company announced Dec. 14.

WISeKey S.A. and The Bancorp Inc. are hoping to give greater peace of mind to customers who conduct transactions online.

Though the mobile-payments market is still nascent, the early successes seem to be those developed by technology companies and mobile-phone carriers–not banks. A new product from Sequent Software Inc. might level the playing field.

Isis, still almost a year away from launching its mobile-payments application, is partnering with an industry heavyweight to serve as the security guard for its wallet.