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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

American Express and Isis have announced that AmEx plans to participate in the two large NFC pilots Isis plans to launch this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas.

Google and PayPal have reportedly expressed concerns to European antitrust regulators, saying they fear that if major UK mobile operators are allowed to form their proposed NFC mobile-commerce joint venture, they would have too much power to control secure elements in NFC phones, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

The Isis mobile operator joint venture has announced that four major point-of-sale terminal and contactless reader vendors have licensed its mobile-commerce application, as the venture gears up for its soft launch in two cities this summer.

Retail giants Wal-Mart Stores and Target Corp. are part of a group of merchants looking at developing its own mobile wallet or payment service, though few details are available, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

BARCELONA – Isis, as expected, has named the first three banks planning to issue payment applications for its Isis Mobile Wallet, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard US.

2012 was going to be the year that the new era of NFC-based mobile commerce had finally arrived–with Google Wallet rolling out widely, mobile operators in the U.S. and Europe making significant inroads with their own mobile wallets and big Asian m-commerce players generally commercializing NFC, as well.

France-based Gemalto has announced its long-held agreement to serve as the trusted service manager for the U.S.-based Isis joint venture, which plans to launch its NFC platform next year.

Google has confirmed in statements to the press that Verizon Wireless is trying to block it from offering the Google Wallet on its own Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which Verizon is expected to put on sale later this month.

The Isis joint venture expects to have about three payment issuers when it launches NFC service in two U.S. cities next year, with JPMorgan Chase and Capital One among the likely banks, NFC Times has learned.

The head of payments at Google, Osama Bedier, cautions against NFC wallet providers closing their platforms, warning the move would backfire.