A year after it acquired the 50% interest in Vital Processing Services that it didn't already own, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) has renamed the merchant-acquiring processor TSYS Acquiring Solutions and announced several new product lines. The Columbus, Ga.-based company, which is known primarily as a processor for card-issuing banks, …

The chief executive of the company holding the largest market share of installed readers for contactless payments predicts the technology, assisted by near-field communication (NFC) capability, will move rapidly from the physical point of sale to e-commerce. Mohammad Khan, president and founder of ViVOtech Inc., which makes electronic wallets for …

Seeking to remove a roadblock standing in the way to eventual mass consumer usage of mobile phones equipped with a form of contactless technology called near-field communication (NFC), MasterCard International this week unveiled a service that will allow cell-phone users to download their account data and other critical information to …

Heightened tensions over interchange fees are helping to fuel expansion in the market for so-called instant issuance of payment plastics. Englewood, Colo.-based Dynamic Card Solutions, which produces software that lets banks issue Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards on the spot to customers, says its revenue grew 53% in 2005, without …

Boston-based Vayusa Inc., whose MobileLime network serves some 80 merchants for payments initiated from consumers' cell phones, plans to begin supporting transactions based on the near-field-communication (NFC) standard in the second quarter. Announcing its new NFC platform today, the company says consumers with MobileLime accounts will be able to use …

In building out a network of point-of-sale readers to accept their contactless cards and tokens, banks and their card associations could be creating an infrastructure that will also support payments based on new mobile-payment technologies like Motorola Corp.'s M-Wallet software that could bypass the lucrative credit card interchange system, one …

Motorola Inc.'s new payment software for mobile phones, called M-Wallet, will begin commercial rollout within three to six months with wireless carriers, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based technology company tells Digital Transactions News. A test of M-Wallet is already in progress, officials say, though they can't give details. The company is in …

Accelitec Inc., a Seattle-based company that last year launched a contactless-payment system aimed at merchants rather than banks, says it is preparing for expansion this year by smoothing integration with existing merchant networks. The company's PayPilot product is in beta with an unidentified merchant, and officials say they expect to …

Projected pilots in 2006 for contactless payment capability on mobile phones with near-field communication (NFC) technology will include high-throughput retail stores, in contrast to the self-contained environment of a sports stadium, where the first such trial began last week (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 14). Tom Zalewski, head of mobile payment …

An Omaha, Neb.-based maker of biometrically secured identity cards says it expects to participate in contactless-payment pilots within three months, with a commercial rollout possible by mid-2006. Five-year-old Digital Defense Group says its credit-card-size token, which contains a fingerprint sensor and an RFID chip, is compliant with MasterCard International's PayPass …