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Suppliers will deploy over 900 NFC-enabled advertising displays on 75 U.S. college campuses for the fall, hoping to capitalize on the high penetration of smartphone ownership on U.S. campuses.

While awareness and use of NFC still is substantially behind that of QR codes when it comes to consumers using interactive advertising displays, NFC appears to be gaining ground.

The MCX merchant consortium, which is gearing up to launch a mobile-wallet platform and bar-code based mobile-payment services in the U.S. has named the former head of mobile commerce for Barclaycard US as CEO, following a long search.

Riders in 5,000 taxicabs in the U.S. would be able to tap on NFC tags on video advertising screens to download apps, brand information, coupons, maps, music and videos, according to technology suppliers that have equipped the taxis for potential advertising campaigns.

Taiwanese banking regulators, as expected, have approved the first bank to issue mobile credit cards that could be downloaded over the air to SIM cards.

The MCX consortium, the group of major U.S. merchants planning to roll out their own mobile wallet, will primarily use bar codes and cloud-based technologies to start off with, not NFC.

While giant UK retailer Tesco is following NFC and contactless payment “intensively” and continues to trial contactless acceptance in more than 30 stores, it has not yet committed to rolling out the technology, in part because of security concerns among customers, said one of Tesco’s mobile chiefs.

A print advertisement for the 2013 Lexus GS luxury car in Wired magazine’s April edition sent to subscribers in several major metropolitan areas of the U.S. came with NFC labels attached.