Singapore’s telecommunication regulator, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, has issued a “call for collaboration” seeking participation in the deployment of an interoperable Near Field Communication payments infrastructure in the country.

Starbucks Corp. has begun a national rollout of the mobile-payment system it began testing more than a year ago, the company announced Dec. 1.

Roam Data is making available a Roampay Swipe card reader that plugs into the audio jack of BlackBerry smartphones, the Boston-based firm announced Nov. 30.

While most bank mobile apps are focused initially on iPhones, then move to Blackberry and Android in subsequent rollouts, it would appear that Android and iPhone are the way to go as BlackBerry falls behind its two rivals in sales.

The National Payment Corp. of India on Nov. 23 rolled out its instant interbank mobile fund-transfer service, which enables customers of seven banks in the country to exchange funds to one another.

Omnego Inc. has launched a mobile wallet application that converts physical loyalty cards including stores’ coupons, rewards and other merchant updates into digital formats usable on mobile devices such as smart phones, the Toronto-based mobile technology company recently announced.

Bank of America Corp. is building on its mobile payments strategy with plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers next year.

The man who developed the concept for what is now the most popular social-networking website has created a mobile-payments application that relies on facial recognition to confirm a user’s identity at the point of sale.

Bank of America Corp. is planning to issue contactless payment stickers to at least some of its card customers, a source familiar with the plans said.

With sponsorship from Citigroup Inc., Billing Revolution Inc. is trying to help convert people who window-shop on their mobile phones into paying customers.

Starbucks Corp. now includes PayPal Inc.’s payment system as a funding method for its mobile payment application.

Near Field Communication will outlast other mobile-payment technologies such as microSD cards and two-dimensional barcodes, observers contacted by PaymentsSource generally agree.

Mobile-payments provider Zong Inc. has entered the Philippines market through partnership agreements with mobile carriers Globe Telecom Ltd. and Smart Communications Ltd., the U.S.-based company announced Nov. 17.

Mitek Systems, fresh off some major wins for its mobile technology, announced yesterday it broke into the black for its fiscal fourth quarter to the tune of a $180,000 net, compared to a $328,000 loss for the fourth quarter last year.

Recent developments suggest 2011 will be the year that mobile payments take hold in the United States in a big way.

The 200 million wireless subscribers connected to AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. may not be enough for the companies’ mobile payments joint venture to succeed; it still needs to attract large banks and merchants, one analyst says.

When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January, the country’s government and relief organizations used services tied to mobile phones to pay victims for clean-up work. The program sought to empower Haitians with a means to buy food and other goods and services.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA will unveil more details on their joint venture to create a mobile payment network, which will be financially backed by Barclays PLC and Discover Financial Services, as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the situation, Dow Jones is reporting.

Consumers have yet to widely adopt bill payment on smartphones — a trend some say is typical of new bill-pay systems.

Why so many ISOs, acquirers, and point-of-sale software and hardware makers are excited about putting advanced mobile POS equipment into merchants’ hands is not difficult to grasp. Such systems may generate additional revenue not only from existing clients, but also possibly from merchants who previously could not or would not accept payment cards.