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.

In a move backing its plan to showcase mobile payments at the London Summer Olympics and Paralympics Games in 2012, Visa Inc. says it will roll out a Near Field Communication-based mobile phone for payments linked to prepaid accounts from British bank Lloyds TSB.

EMerchants Ltd. on May 20 won a three-year contract to provide prepaid cards for Telechoice, the largest dealer for mobile operator Optus Ltd. in Australia.

Mitek Systems said June 6 it has been granted four new patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its popular “Point, Shoot and Deposit” mobile deposit technology.

Google Inc. isn't asking for a share of the payments revenue generated with its new mobile wallet. Nevertheless, partnering with the search engine juggernaut could be a trade-off for banks.

Merchants that want to accept payments from Google Inc.’s mobile wallet must go through a few more steps than simply enabling customers to “tap and pay.”

Star One Credit Union chose Tyfone Inc. for mobile banking services partly because of the vendor’s Near Field Communication-based contactless payment capabilities, the $5.6 billion credit union said May 31.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is making its mobile check capture technology available to its main customer base after a successful rollout with customers of its online-centric Virtual Wallet account.

American Express Co.’s top executive on June 1 poked proverbial holes in Google Inc.’s new mobile wallet, arguing in favor of a competing payments system his company is testing.

Mobile-banking customers are three times more likely to use mobile payments than are consumers generally, new research shows.

Mobile-banking customers are three times more likely to use mobile payments than are consumers generally, new research shows.