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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) says it will introduce a mass-market NFC payments solution within the next three months, according to ZDNet Australia.

An anonymous source at CBA told ZDNet that the bank plans to roll out special phone cases powered by a microSD card, which would contain the user’s banking information, along with an embedded contactless payments chip. 

The NFC Forum has signed agreements to work with organizations representing three different industries: the Asia Pacific Smart Card Association (APSCA), the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and the Open Mobile Alliance.

The first group, APSCA, is a non-profit association that provides information, consultancy and networking services to the Asia Pacific smart card industry. The NFC Forum’s Memorandum of Understanding with APSCA will allow the two to share information and coordinate non-technical activities such as training courses, case studies, white papers, research, webcasts, and events. 

PayPal has developed a new Android widget that enables users to tap their phones together to exchange money, reports PCWorld.

Expected to launch this summer, the widget runs only on NFC phones, like the Nexus S featured in the video above. To exchange funds, one user enters the amount to paid, and then holds their phone against the other user’s. This sends a payment request to the second user, who then enters a PIN, thereby confirming the payment. 

Identive Group has announced the launch of an online marketplace featuring NFC solutions for system integrators and applications developers.

According to the company, IdentiveNFC.com will offer a range of NFC products and educational resources, including:

• NFC tags for Google Places program – Pre-personalized NFC tags for local businesses participating in Google’s smart poster campaign.

• NFC tags – A selection of NFC Forum-compliant tags, including Google NFC tags type 1, 2 and 4.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based wireless transaction provider Apriva has announced a contactless payment vending machine initiative, as well as certification for its AprivaPay mobile card payment app.

In an effort to deliver EMV-compliant contactless payment vending machine technology to Canada, Apriva has partnered with Open Solutions, a Canadian ATM, credit and debit card services provider. The technology is based on Apriva’s Apriva Vend cashless vending system. The system includes hardware, software, payment processing, cellular carrier services and reporting. 

Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners has announced that the company is working with banks to potentially roll out NFC payments in New Zealand, according to Computerworld.

Stanners told the Trans-Tasman Business Circle yesterday that the infrastructure for NFC payments is already in place, and the company is currently in talks with banks on how to introduce the service. The only hold up, Stanners says, is waiting on device manufacturers to start embracing NFC.