A global relief organization and a local mobile-phone provider in Haiti recently completed a test of its Mobile Money funds-transfer project in which Haitians affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake used mobile phones to receive payment for work and to make purchases at a local grocery store.

East Japan Railway Co. during the first half of next year plans to offer a mobile fare-payment service for its network supported by mobile network carrier KDDI Corp.

U.S. Bancorp is teaming with Monitise PLC to offer mobile-banking services to the bank’s Visa-branded AccelaPay relodable prepaid payroll card.

National Payments Corp. of India in November reportedly plans to launch a payment system that would enable consumers in that country to transfer funds for free to any account in India held by participating financial institutions using their mobile phones.

Corpus Christi, Texas-based NavyArmy Federal Credit Union has signed with ATM maker Diebold to implement the company’s new mobile banking solution.

SecureKey Technologies Inc. has developed a way to turn any computer into a contactless payment terminal, bringing the improved security of contactless payments to e-commerce — without requiring online merchants to do anything to their systems.

PayPal Inc. is acting more like a bank these days and the addition of a mobile remote-deposit capture feature to its Apple Inc. iPhone application is helping solidify that view, according to one industry observer.

Latham, N.Y.-based Sunmark Federal Credit Union has introduced a mobile banking application that will allow members to conduct financial transactions and to voice opinions about the credit union’s products and services.

Participants in a cross-industry forum to help develop U.S. mobile payments technology are nearing completion of a white paper that aims to identify the significant obstacles and opportunities facing the industry, Richard R. Oliver, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, told attendees Oct. 5 at SourceMedia’s ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Phoenix, Ariz.

Bling Nation Ltd.’s deal with Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC could give them the entree they need to promote the company’s postage-stamp-sized contactless payment sticker across the country.

ItzCash Card Pvt. Ltd. has become India's first multiservice prepaid company to receive a license from the country’s central bank to operate a mobile wallet, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based company tells PaymentsSource.

Looking to boost resources to meet an expected spike in demand for mobile financial services, ClairMail announced a $13.9 million infusion from VCs including Investor Growth Capital (IGC), a Stockholm firm that specializes in growth-stage tech firms.

The National Bank of Rwanda has set guidelines for mobile-phone payment systems in that country, according to a notice on the institution’s website.

Jack Henry & Associates Inc.'s ProfitStars division has begun offering Mitek Systems Inc.'s mobile remote-deposit capture software, pairing it with its own Alogent Mobile Remote Deposit system.

Research In Motion Ltd. is expanding the payment capabilities of its BlackBerry smartphones.

NCR Corp. said Wednesday that it is providing a mobile banking system to customers of Hancock Holding Co.'s Hancock Bank.

Masabi Ltd. has secured $2 million from m8 Capital, a United Kingdom-based mobile-technology investment company, to aid in the global rollout of a barcode-based mobile application designed to enable consumers to purchase train tickets using their mobile phones from any location, London-based Masabi announced on Sept. 28.

Obopay Inc. is trying to simplify its payments system with text messages.

Suppose your bank's retail customer wants to use a mobile phone to accept credit cards at a garage sale she's planning. MasterCard Inc. has an app for that.

More consumers are using mobile phones to pay bills, but specifically how they are doing so requires more study, according Fiserv Inc., which identified the gap in information earlier this year when it polled 2,000 households as part of the technology company’s 2010 Billing Household online survey (see story).