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.

A ban on illegal cellular towers is causing problems for credit card transactions in the Indian capital city of New Delhi, local newspaper The Times of India reports. Several shops at high-end malls in the city reported credit card failures because of failed authorization calls caused by drops on cellular connectivity.

Monitise Americas LLC is planning to introduce a version of its Mobile Money application for phones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

A new regulation approved by the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea could slow domestic growth in mobile payments, an official from the regulator confirmed. Under the new policy, all transactions initiated with advanced handsets would be subject to the same security requirements that control online transactions initiated with personal computers.

A small mobile-phone Near Field Communication payment trial is under way in Slovenia designed to test consumer use of MasterCard and Maestro contactless payments, Inside Contactless announced today.

Target Corp. customers now may store gift card data electronically and make payments at the point of sale using their mobile phones.

Financial companies, discovering that people who bank by phone don't always bank online, are changing how they look at mobile services.

Electronic-payment services provider Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., known as NETS, has launched a mobile-payment option for its cashless-payment service iNETS, according to a company statement. The service will enable consumers in Singapore to pay bills, make purchases and book tickets using their mobile phones.

Indian Overseas Bank has launched its first mobile ATM as part of its drive to expand access to the institution’s services, an official from the Chennai, India-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Card readers that attach to mobile phones suddenly have become a hot industry topic, and HomeATM ePayment Solutions is about to throw its own device into the mix, PaymentsSource has learned.

Smart Communications Inc. has signed a mobile-payments deal with Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc., the Philippines-based company announced on Jan. 31.