A mobile payments business model Citigroup Inc. tested in India has proven a hit among all the key players, even wireless carriers.

Visa Inc. is looking outside the U.S. for growth and hopes to derive more than half of its revenues from international markets within the next five years, executives from the card company today told investors gathered in San Francisco for its annual Investor Day presentation.

Tio Networks, which today announced the planned launch of a mobile bill-payment platform, estimates it will generate 20% of its revenue from the service by 2011, according to the Burnaby, British Columbia-based expedited bill-payment processor.

Target Corp. has begun delivering coupons to customers' mobile phones.

China Mobile plans to purchase a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion or 4.2 billion euros) as part of its plans to develop a mobile-payment system in the country, China Mobile announced on March 10.

One of the world’s largest trials of Near Field Communication payments, which Citigroup Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide launched last year in India, provided a glimpse into the challenges of incorporating merchant-sponsored product discounts and coupons within mobile payments.

WorldNet, an Ireland-based online payment gateway, says its virtual payment-terminal application released this week for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is the company’s first, and it plans to add chip-and-PIN capability to the software in later versions.

Firethorn Holdings LLC is offering consumers free access to their accounts at more than 3,700 financial institutions through a single mobile application, according to the Atlanta-based mobile-service provider.

Merchants appear to like VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare mobile-phone payment service on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and their customers are completing big-ticket purchases using the devices.

Nokia Corp. plans to team up with Mumbai-based Yes Bank to plot Nokia Money, a mobile-commerce platform, in India, a Bangalore-based official at the Finnish Handset Maker tells PaymentsSource.

Noor Islamic Bank plans launch the United Arab Emirates’ first mobile Internet-banking service in Arabic, the Dubai-based bank announced on March 1.

It sounds counterintuitive: USAA Federal Savings Bank's customers will soon access a more-secure mobile banking service by entering less information.

Mocapay Inc., a Denver-based mobile loyalty and gift card technology company, last week unveiled a platform enabling merchants to give customers a one-time authorization code to conduct point-of-sale payments from prepaid accounts using mobile handsets.

Citigroup Inc. is evaluating a new mobile service that monitors where people do their shopping, but has no actual banking functions.

China Unicom will officially launch its Near Field Communication service later this year in Shanghai, confirms a Shanghai-based official from the nation's second-largest mobile network carrier.

MShift filed suit in federal court in San Francisco Friday claiming Digital Insight is infringing on its patent for the company’s pioneering mobile banking technology that Digital Insight is providing to hundreds of credit unions and banks.

Mopay Inc. has announced plans to expand its global presence. Under the initiative, the Germany-based mobile-payments company hopes to enable U.S. consumers to purchase virtual goods and other digital content using their mobile-phone accounts, the company notes in a recent press release. It also hopes to create a new revenue channel to U.S. gaming and social-network providers.

Visa Inc.’s announced hiring today of Bill Gajda, a top global wireless carrier trade association executive, to lead its mobile-payments initiatives could help the network brand cut through some of industry-sector obstacles blocking mobile-payment development, observers say. Gajda is chief commercial officer at the GSM Association, an international telecommunication organization that develops worldwide wireless standards for mobile communications, and after joining Visa he will continue as president of the GSM Foundation.

Hana Card Co. and South Korea-based telecommunication operator SK Telecom Co. plan to launch a mobile credit card payment service in March under a new joint venture, an official from the credit card company tells PaymentsSource.

Mocapay Inc. said last week that Micros Retail Systems Inc. would use the Boulder, Colo., vendor's technology to add mobile access to Micros loyalty programs.