An Atlanta test of mobile-phone payments, mobile downloads, and other applications, announced today, is the first major U.S. test of near-field communication (NFC) for functions like contactless payments, but it won't be the last. Mohammad Khan, president and founder of ViVOtech Inc., which is supplying handset-based wallet software and contactless …

The willingness of U.S. consumers to use credit or debit cards to buy things like cups of coffee or cans of soda is rising fast, according to a survey being released this week at a conference in New York on micropayments, or transactions for less than $5. Some 21% of …

This may be the year contactless payment gained a foothold among banks and merchants, but another technology?biometrically secured point-of-sale payments?is starting to gain momentum, as well. BioPay LLC, a provider of the technology for both POS transactions and payroll check-cashing, says it expects in 2006 to double, and possibly triple, …

The U.S. cash-payment market is enormous, but banks' hopes of penetrating it with so-called contactless technology could falter if high acceptance costs spur merchants to look at alternative electronic payment methods. That's one among a number of findings in a new study released this week on the market for transactions …

Citigroup Inc. plans to roll out 2.5 million key fobs for contactless debit card payment following a launch of the technology this fall in the New York area, the banking giant announced today. The so-called tap-and-go transaction devices will fit on consumer's keychains, and will be based on MasterCard International's …

A small, privately held company based in the outskirts of Chicago figures it has the platform on which mobile payments will take off in the U.S., a market that up to now has not been favorable for handheld-based transactions. By the end of the year, C-Sam Inc. plans to have …

A Seattle-based startup that has been quietly testing a contactless payment system intended to be branded and controlled by merchants is now marketing the system as a way for retailers to control rising card-acceptance costs. Accelitec Inc. says its PayPilot system, which includes token dispensers, tokens equipped with chip-and-transmitter inlays, …

Signature-based debit continued to grow at double-digit rates in the second quarter, as indicated by statistics released today by MasterCard International. Total MasterCard signature, or off-line, debit volume hit $48 billion in the U.S., up 32.3% over the same period last year. The point-of-sale component of this activity was $29.1 …

American Express Co. today said it has commenced a nationwide rollout of its ExpressPay contactless card program and announced that 7-Eleven Inc. would accept the AmEx technology, which is being embedded in the New York-based T&E giant's Blue card. The Dallas-based convenience-store chain joins pharmacy chain CVS Corp. as national …

Addressing a longstanding complaint of independent sales organizations and other nonbank acquirers, MasterCard International has published its operating rules for what the card company calls member service providers. MasterCard says the 291-page document, entitled “Member Service Provider Rules Manual,” is now available free, and has posted a PDF for download. …