Mobile payments

Issuers in Europe are rolling out payment cards featuring built-in display screens that offer improved security and can provide access to balance information - but there are major hurdles that make it unlikely any banks would offer the technology in the U.S. anytime soon.

MasterCard Worldwide on June 3 introduced an application designed to enable cardholders with Apple Inc. iPhones to initiate person-to-person funds transfers between MasterCard accounts. But thus far just one U.S. banking company is supporting the service.

China Mobile reportedly is delaying deployment of an RF-SIM contactless-payment technology based on a standalone 2.4-gighertz frequency and instead is adopting SIMpass, a contactless card that uses a 13.56-megahetz radio frequency and that is fully compatible with the widely accepted Near Field Communication standard.

A growing number of mobile payments companies are promoting systems that charge purchases to users' phone bills rather than credit or debit cards.

Four out of five U.S. households with Internet access now bank online, suggest the results of a Fiserv Inc. survey released May 25.

Four out of five U.S. households with Internet access now bank online, suggest the results of a Fiserv Inc. survey released May 25.

Laxmi Bank Ltd. in Nepal has launched an online-payment service, an official from the Kathmandu-based bank tells PaymentsSource.

Mobile merchants in nations where chip-and-PIN cards using the EMV standard are used will have an opportunity to use VeriFone Systems Inc.’s PayWare Mobile service for the iPhone later this year, VeriFone says.

Fledging mobile-payments company RegaloCard LLC announced May 26 a distribution agreement with IDT Corp. to place its card-based funds-transfer service in more than 150,000 retailers across the United States.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers soon will be able to pay their utility bills with Apple Inc.’s iPhone as part of a pilot the San Francisco-based utility agreed to with bill-payments expediter Tio Networks Corp.

Payments experts are split on consumers' willingness to use phones to make purchases, or whether they know it's an option. While the analysts agree interchange policies are far too complicated, there is also concern that government mandates may not be the best way to make fees more equitable.

Mirroring what others are saying about the future of Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments in the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston reveals in a May 23 report that widespread adoption of the technology will not occur for at least another five years.

Visa Inc. and Monitise PLC plan to form a joint venture to provide mobile financial services in India, the companies announced May 26. They expect the joint-venture deal to close in June.

MasterCard Worldwide is planning to open up its software format, enabling third-party programmers to develop payments applications for its network. The company on May 25 said it would release open application programming interfaces for developers later this year.

Equity Bank is partnering with telecommunication firm Safaricom Ltd. to launch a mobile funds-transfer service called M-Kesho, the Kenya-based bank announced in a statement. The service will launch by the end of this month.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has added two so-called Instant Action text-alert features to its mobile-banking service.

The best thing about mobile payment apps is not the speed of transactions made with phones, but how the apps let people manage their accounts on their own instead of wasting time at the register, according to early results from retailers.

Japan Airlines International on June 1 plans to launch the “JAL Mile Phone,” a service that will enable members of the airline’s JAL Mileage Bank frequent-flyer program to earn miles using customized mobile phones and users of the airline’s JAL credit card to secure additional benefits.

UOB Bank Ltd. has begun offering an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones called the Lady’s Soulmate as part of the issuer’s effort to revamp its Lady’s credit card. The goal is to add 1 million cardholders by 2014 as part of the initiative, the Singapore-based bank said in a statement.

Software platforms that have enabled developers to create payment applications for use on Apple's iPhone and social-networking websites will have a significant effect on the payments industry over the next decade, David Evans, founder of Market Platform Dynamics, said.