MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment feature may soon be presented to the Azerbaijan market of cashless payments.

According to a recent MasterCard study, 75% of the local residents said they would like to use contactless payment cards in supermarkets and 60% to pay public transport fare. When asked which devices, in addition to a plastic card, it would be convenient to make payments, 86% of respondents said they would like to use their mobile phone. 

Facebook has acquired Tagtile, a San Francisco based start-up that offers an NFC-enabled mobile marketing and loyalty rewards service for small businesses and merchants.

Purchased for an undisclosed sum, Tagtile provides merchants with POS hardware, i.e. the Tagtile Cube, that customers can tap with their NFC phone to earn rewards points. Merchants can also use Tagtile to track their customer base and send customized offers directly to users’ phones. 

Turkish mobile operator Turkcell has combined its NFC mobile payments service, Cep-T Cüzdan, with its location-based services (LBS) mobile coupon platform.

According to Turkcell, the newly integrated LBS system enables credit card users who add their Akbank Axess cards to Cep-T Cüzdan to receive tailored, on-the-go promotions, as well as surprise offers based on their current location. 

VeriFone Systems has received certification of its EMV/NFC-enabled payment processing solution from Vantiv, a provider of payment processing services and related technology solutions for U.S. merchants and financial institutions.

The two companies have cooperated on certification of the VeriFone Evolution payment platform for EMV payments. According to VeriFone, each device in the VX Evolution family supports NFC and EMV payments and offers PCI PTS 3.0 security.  

The NFC Forum has appointed TÜV SÜD Product Service to provide its Radio Frequency (RF) Analogue Test Tool Validation Service.

TÜV SÜD, a global provider of product testing and certification, will validate all RF Analogue test tools used as part of the NFC Forum Certification Program for testing the RF Layer of the communications stack to prove conformance to the NFC Forum specifications. 

Barclaycard launched a new stick-on credit card application that will enable millions of its Visa cardholders to make wave-and-pay purchases using their mobile phone.

A third of the size of a normal card, Barclaycard PayTag can be stuck to the back of any mobile phone. Once attached, it can be used to make payments of £15 and under, rising to £20 in June, by simply being held over a contactless payment terminal. 

Dutch RFID inlay maker Smartrac has announced the availability of its new Midas NFC tag.

Designed to link small objects with cloud services, Midas tags can be attached to electronics and various other accessories allowing for a unique identification of the object while at the same time granting access to a range of services and options residing in the cloud.