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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

U.S.-based Citigroup will announce later this month the launch of contactless payment stickers in the United States, part of a possible national rollout, NFC Times has learned.

A top executive of EasyCard Corp. assured the public about the safety and security of the more than 18.2 million EasyCards that will have an upgraded function as electronic-wallets for shopping at designated retailing outlets (in Taipei, Taiwan) beginning April 1. (The China Post) 

Customers in the Czech Republic will for the first time be able to make contactless payments using the MasterCard PayPass technology at selected shops this year, daily Právo reported, referring to Brian Lang, chief executive of company MasterCard Europe for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (Czech Business Weekly)

A dozen years have passed since the first person famously bought a Coke from a specially adapted vending machine in Scandinavia using a mobile phone. But in the intervening time, the anticipated mass market adoption of such “mobile wallet” services hasn’t happened (BusinessWeek).

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, has announced it is launching its T Smart Pay service, what it calls a “next-generation” payment service.

Visa Inc. has promoted the head of its North American bank sales unit and a former IBM employee to global head of product, the top executive post overseeing innovation, including NFC and contactless payment, among many other duties.

UPDATE: South Korean mobile operators KT and SK Telecom plan to commercially launch NFC by the second half of this year, rolling out NFC phones and, at least for KT, high-capacity SIM cards to subscribers to carry retail payment, transit-fare collection, and banking and loyalty applications, NFC Times has learned.

Consumers could be tapping their mobile phones to make purchases with contactless microSD cards storing payment applications before the end of the year, said U.S.-based processor First Data, which announced today it would make the cards available with its technology vendor Tyfone.

Bankers who thought they would have to put their applications onto SIM cards in NFC phones to offer mobile-contactless payment should think again, according to the Mobey Forum, a bank-led association that has issued a report describing four alternatives to the SIM for supporting payment applications in phones.

(UPDATE: Visa Inc. on Monday announced global head of product Elizabeth Buse has been named group executive for the Asia-Pacific and CEMEA regions, replacing Rupert Keeley, who is leaving the company. It confirms the NFC Times story below, published over the weekend.)

The UK has increased the amount at which consumers merely need to tap to pay without entering a PIN code from £10 (US$15.08) to £15 (US$22.63).

Two makers of newly developed contactless microSD cards are moving their products toward market trials, as their big U.S. payments patrons–Visa Inc. and First Data Corp.–seek to capitalize on growing demand from banks, as well as from mobile operators.