ABnote has announced that it is supplying the secure technology for ANZ and MasterCard’s mobile payments pilot in New Zealand.

The pilot tests MasterCard PayPass-enabled stickers, which are attached to a user’s mobile phone to perform contactless payments at the point of sale. Customers using the new service can make payments up to $80 without having to sign or enter a PIN. 

SparkBase is launching a free Android and iPhone app that will allow Chicago-area shoppers to store their loyalty cards on their smart phone, according to Fastcompany.com.

Dubbed ‘PayCloud,’ the new app enables users to locate participating merchants, sign up for their loyalty programs and redeem rewards using just a smart phone - no plastic required. 

Nokia’s new C7 and C9 handsets will be equipped with NFC chips, but will not have the technology necessary to support mobile payments, according to Recombu.com.

Neither handset will feature an embedded secure element with payment capabilities or support for the Single Wire Protocol (SWP), says Recombu. The SWP is the specification for a single-wire connection between the SIM card, which would contain payment technology provided by the operator, and an NFC chip. 

It’s only a matter of time before paying with your mobile phone becomes a reality in the U.S., says James Anderson, MasterCard’s senior vice president of mobile and vice chairman of the NFC Forum.

In an interview with BGR, Anderson likened the current NFC payments situation to that of Internet-accessing smart phones in 2001: 

From some Austinites

Isis, the mobile payments venture that is teaming up with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to bring NFC to the U.S., is piloting its program in Austin, Texas in 2012. While NFC adoption has begun to pick up in the rest of the world, it has been slow to become popular in the US for a number of reasons, mainly the lack of compatible hardware.

Isis will attempt to change that as it pilots its program in Austin and Salt Lake City in 2012. But will retailers to adopt this technology? 

Komercní banka, Citibank Europe, Globus CR, Visa Europe and Telefónica Czech Republic have launched a mobile contactless payments pilot at several Globus hypermarkets in Cakovice, Prague.

According to Komercní, the new technology allows customers to load payment cards onto a Visa payWave-enabled SIM card stored in their mobile phone, thus enabling contactless payments at the point of sale. 

CorFire, the mobile commerce business of SK C&C USA, has announced the release of three new products for the mobile payments market, CorTrust, CorPay and Cor360.

Designed to enable businesses to deploy a wide array of mobile commerce applications, the three solutions leverage NFC technology as well as bridge technology for non-NFC based transactions, according to CorFire.