The emerging U.S. mobile-payments market could be putting consumers at risk for fraud, and a consumer-advocacy group is urging wireless carriers to protect its customers from unauthorized transactions.

Starbucks Corp. finally has an official mobile payment offering for Android smartphones.

Verizon Wireless has brick-and-mortar mobile payments covered thanks to its participation in the Isis joint venture. But the company soon will give its wireless customers the option to charge online purchases directly to their mobile-phone bill.

The plethora of new mobile payment initiatives – the most recent being the mobile wallet project announced by Google, Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint – can be confusing for banks. What mobile payment technologies make the most sense for a financial institution to offer? In a recent interview with Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, he handicapped the three versions of near-field communication mobile payment technology that standards bodies have approved. [Near-field communication is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables short-range communication between electronic devices, and it’s the mechanism most companies are choosing to pursue mobile payments.] The differences between the three versions hinge on who controls the security of the mobile payments by controlling the “secure element” that stores cardholder credentials and account data and communicates with the apps.

Tyfone Inc. has received a patent for programming add-on smart cards in a mobile phone to function as a payment account.

The buzz around person-to-person payments has long been claimed by rival upstarts such as PayPal Inc., but banks are striking back, as evidenced by the ClearXChange consortium.

Barclaycard has retooled a contactless-payments television advertisement to feature use of a mobile phone to make payments in a move that could help to raise awareness of the technology in the United Kingdom. The ad first appeared June 4 during the finale of the popular television show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

China Merchants Bank Ltd. is partnering with social networking platform company Renren Inc. to issue a cobranded credit card in China, the bank announced June 13.

Charles Schwab Corp. customers with Android smartphones can now deposit checks into their bank and brokerage accounts.

Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase LLC is using $3 million in new funding to hasten the development and deployment of its technology platform and mobile services, which includes a smartphone application that enables consumers to quickly enroll in merchant-loyalty programs.

NEW ORLEANS–For all talk about how mobile technology can rapidly bring financial services to emerging markets, it has really only worked in a few countries so far, most notably Kenya and the Philippines. Much of mobile money’s success in Kenya can be attributed to the work of Michael Joseph, a strategic advisor to Safaricom, who discussed here on June 7 his experiences building a new financial infrastructure in that country.

Bharti Airtel Telecom Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pan-African banking group Ecobank Transnational Inc. to provide mobile-banking services across Africa, the companies announced June 7.

Visa Inc.’s acquisition of Fundamo will help it use mobile payments to serve more underbanked consumers abroad, according to the card network, which on June 9 announced a deal in which is will pay about $110 million for the Cape Town, South Africa-based mobile payments company.

Think Computer Corp. has added a contactless-payment capability to its FaceCash mobile wallet.

NEW ORLEANS–One of the prevailing themes of this year’s Mobile Banking Summit is there is nothing inherently wrong with plastic cards: A number of speakers, panelists and attendees with a major stake in mobile payments all acknowledge that physical cards work well, posing a steep hill to climb to get consumers to use their phones to make payments.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Ltd. last week announced a free mobile-payment service that will enable its customers to make small-ticket purchases at merchant locations within the United Arab Emirates.

Bling Nation, the mobile payments and loyalty company, has shut down its service in a move it insists is only temporary.

NEW ORLEANS — Banks intent on bringing mobile payments to a wide swath of customers will soon have to make difficult decisions about devices, partnerships, vendor management and employee training.

About 200 banks and credit unions are using Fiserv Inc.'s Mobile Money software, more than double the number that were live with the service a year ago, the Brookfield, Wis., vendor said June 6.

Mobile banking and payments provider Clairmail Inc. has hired a new chief financial officer and a new chief technology officer.