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Far EasTone, one of Taiwan’s top three mobile operators, Monday announced plans for a large multiapplication NFC pilot among employees of its large conglomerate owner, Far Eastern Group.

Taiwan’s largest mobile operator, Chunghwa Telecom, and four banks announced plans today to launch NFC mobile payment, likely starting with Cathay United Bank and a six-month pilot.

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.

Five banks in Taiwan are expected to receive approval from regulators by next month that would allow them to issue mobile credit cards that could be downloaded over the air to SIM cards in NFC phones.

Merchant locations accepting PayPass cards and applications on mobile devices stood at nearly 700,000 globally at the end of 2012, MasterCard Worldwide announced this week.

Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has approved a joint venture among Taiwan’s five mobile operators and its major contactless payments service provider, EasyCard Corp., to build an NFC payments platform, but with conditions.

Transactions with Visa payWave cards in Taiwan grew by 19% during the third quarter with spending up by 23%, according to Visa’s country office in Taiwan.

The 10-year anniversary of the official birth of NFC came and went quietly on Sept. 5, 2012.

Japan’s largest telco, NTT DoCoMo, has begun to make a key piece of its strategy for NFC known, announcing deals with MasterCard Worldwide and South Korea’s KT Corp. to enable subscribers to make payments when they roam in other countries.

Chunghwa Telecom’s NFC wallet trial will test two payment applications and a Chunghwa T