China’s Union Mobile Pay service’s transaction sales volume exceeded 30 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion or 3.1 billion euros) in 2009, a spokesperson for the mobile payment service provider tells PaymentsSource.

Mobile banking is gaining more popularity with the underbanked than it is with conventional bank customers.

Consumers’ increased use of smart phones to shop appears to be having an effect on how small businesses purchase. New survey data suggest that 27% of small companies use mobile devices to make purchases.

Credit unions are expanding beyond Apple's iPhone to develop mobile banking applications for other devices, in particular those running the Google Android operating system.

Bank of America Corp. is collaborating with Visa Inc. and DeviceFidelity Inc. on a mobile-payment program to begin next month in New York enabling consumers’ smart phones to operate as contactless-payment devices, Visa confirms.

Apple Inc. increased speculation that it plans to develop an NFC-enabled iPhone with its hiring this month of mFoundry executive Benjamin Vigier, who has played a key role in developing mobile payment applications for PayPal Inc. and Starbucks Corp.

Mobile-marketing firm Mocapay Inc. this month announced a strategic partnership with payments processor eNational Payments with the goal of helping merchants to deliver customized coupons and other promotions to consumers via mobile handsets.

Vertifi Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastern Corporate Credit Union, said it has developed a fully-featured mobile banking iPhone application for members of Randolph-Brooks FCU in Live Oak, Texas, and it is now available on the App Store.

Checks may be getting an extended life now that financial institutions are developing and rolling out mobile remote-deposit capture technology as part of their mobile-banking applications, observers say.

A new iPhone application that lets consumers rack up reward points by simply walking in to stores could give banks and card issuers the foundation for a truly mobile loyalty program.

Mitek Systems Inc. on Aug. 18 announced it has received a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its mobile remote-deposit capture application.

PayPal Inc.'s next round of mobile payment features, including its rumored future as an additional payment system for Google Inc. phones, shows the strength of PayPal's mobile strategy and the weakness of Google's historical approach to payments.

Mitek Systems Inc., which reported that its loss widened in its fiscal third quarter, says its software is becoming popular for mobile remote deposit capture.

With little room to add major new retail partners to sell its prepaid debit cards, Green Dot Corp. is focusing on new features, especially mobile, to increase same-store sales and reduce churn.

A security vendor is trying to sell transaction monitoring services directly to consumers, a technology that until now has been offered primarily to banks.

KeyBank is offering customers text-based banking services through Fiserv Inc.'s Mobile Money program, the Brookfield, Wis., bank technology vendor said Wednesday.

India’s UTI Mutual Fund is partnering with mobile-payments provider mChek Pvt. Ltd. to launch UTI Mobile, a service that enables investors to initiate payment instructions for investing in mutual funds from a mobile phone, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based asset management company tells PaymentsSource.

Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd. policyholders soon will be able to use their mobile phones to pay their insurance premiums, a spokesperson for the government-owned insurer tells PaymentsSource.

The mobile banking and payments company ClairMail Inc. said it had strong revenue growth in the second quarter.

PayPal Inc. has updated its mobile payment application for Android phones.