Consumer confidence rose in November to its highest mark in five months, a sign that people are hopeful about improving labor market conditions, according to a report released today by The Conference Board, an industry group.

Taiyuan Xinbao Parking Meter System Co. Ltd. plans to extend the deployment of contactless smart card technology from Legic Identsystems Ltd. to its parking-meter operations in China, the Germany-based technology provider announced earlier this month.

GERMANTOWN, Md. – Montgomery County Employees FCU has rolled out FinanceWorks, a financial management tool for members powered by Intuit’s Quicken.

Discover Financial Services’ Nov. 29 announcement that it is distributing credit cards and stickers supporting its Zip contactless-payment technology to its customers, on the heels of a similar announcement last week from Bank of America Corp., suggests the emergence of two key marketplace opportunities that tap-and-pay technology could exploit, analysts say.

Discover Financial Services has begun to distribute credit cards and stickers that support its Zip contactless-payment service, the company announced Nov. 29.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – CO-OP Financial Services announced this morning it has teamed with mFoundry to offer mobile deposits, allowing members to “snap and deposit” checks from anywhere using their mobile phones.

The National Payment Corp. of India on Nov. 23 rolled out its instant interbank mobile fund-transfer service, which enables customers of seven banks in the country to exchange funds to one another.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The $83-million JM Associates FCU has partnered with sponsor JM Family Enterprises, Inc., to create “Smart Badge,” a new payment process of the company that uses smart-chip technology.

Visa Europe recently announced a partnership with the University College Dublin Centre for Cybercrime Investigation to help fight card-not-present fraud online, Visa Europe reported earlier this month.

To several pioneers, the mobile-payments revolution need not wait for the market to resolve questions about hardware. Not when so much is possible with software innovations on existing phones.

The ability to turn a consumer’s purchase behavior into a new financial services product is the front line of payments innovation, and the past few days alone have seen a flurry of activity—with Bling, Discover, Visa and American Express Co. all participating in launches that use Web and mobile technology to drive consumers to specific banks and retailers.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bank of America Corp. is building on its mobile payments strategy with plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers in 2011.

U.S. consumer credit card charge-off and delinquency rates fell once again in October as recession-related credit card losses continued to abate, according to new data Moody’s Investors Service released Nov. 22.

Omnego Inc. has launched a mobile wallet application that converts physical loyalty cards including stores’ coupons, rewards and other merchant updates into digital formats usable on mobile devices such as smart phones, the Toronto-based mobile technology company recently announced.

Consumers in the northern part of the state of Haryana in India soon may begin paying their electricity bills online, according to Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, a state-owned power utility.

Two major retail chains in Australia recently announced deals to accept contactless cards by the end of this year.

Greg Ousley wants to be a chaperone of sorts for the secondary mortgage market.

Bank of America Corp. is building on its mobile payments strategy with plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers next year.

With the U.S. unemployment rate stuck at 9.6%, and the economy growing at an anemic 2% annual rate in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Caine & Weiner, an international provider of accounts receivable management solutions, surveyed businesses in every major industry to determine the impact on cash flow.

The man who developed the concept for what is now the most popular social-networking website has created a mobile-payments application that relies on facial recognition to confirm a user’s identity at the point of sale.