Retailers are more aware of mobile contactless payments then they were a year ago and 52% say they are exploring the use of such payments for improving payment seamlessness and customer loyalty.

Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company based in Boston, surveyed 180 companies to outline the implications and trends related to proximity mobile payments. According to results, retail, hospitality and transit companies are indicating high levels of awareness for mobile payments and NFC acceptance. Eighty percent of companies surveyed are aware of this technology today compared to 63% in 2007 and retailers indicated they may take action within the next 24 months.

Carlsbad, Calif.-based TranZfinity has unveiled its Secure-Z global services platform and Secure-ME consumer technology that combines contactless, NFC, USB and secure storage into a single solution. Together, they are expected to encourage merchant and consumer acceptance of NFC technology.

TranZfinity proposes to help NFC ecosystem players – bank card issuers, mobile network operators, mobile handset manufacturers, transportation systems, merchants and advertisers - leap from pilots into broader commercial rollouts.

Contactless reader provider SCM Microsystems has introduced @MAXX prime, a new family of portable USB devices that enable secure electronic transactions, data storage and access. The entire range of the SCM @MAXX devices are expected to include secure smart card functionality alongside flash storage to provide mobile authentication for a variety of electronic applications, including financial services, transportation, e-payment, logical and physical access, digital signature and public key infrastructure.

LEGIC Identsystems Ltd will be showcasing new products at the SECURITY 2008 conferences in Essens, Germany this week. New products include enabling logical access on contactless smart cards, a venture into near field communication and new applications with its Master-Token System Control (MTSC) physical security system.

LEGIC’s card-in-card solution will enable companies to embed a virtual LEGIC transponder into contactless or dual interface smart cards provided by third parties. The cards can then be used for logical and physical access control.

A four-month near field communication trial involving Bay Area Rapid Transit riders in San Francisco that enabled them to use their Sprint-supplied cell phones to both pay for fares and food, has been deemed a success. Companies participating in the trial–BART, First Data and ViVOtech–released the results of the Jan. 28 to May 30, 2008 trial which showed high usage in both transit fares and retail payments.

The results show that BART riders who took part in the trial extensively used their contactless, NFC-enabled phones to pay for their BART fares and meals at participating Jack in the Box restaurants. The results also show that participants at BART stations frequently tapped smart advertisements in BART stations with their NFC phones. These posters contained directions to nearby Jack in the Box restaurants.

Professionals and other end users can develop their own contactless and NFC applications thanks to the AIRTAG Kit that enables users to program tags to NFC standards, communicate with all NFC mobile phones and to develop secured applications compliant with the industry standards.

Thirty five finalists are in the running for 10 Sesames awards that will be presented during the 2008 edition of the CARTES & IDentification show Nov. 4-6 in Paris. At first there were 233 entrants, but the field has been cut to 35. It’s a field which features some of the top names in the industry, including Gemalto, Oberthur, Giesecke & Devrient, NXP, Infineon and more.

Visa contactless payments, money transfers and more are being added to Nokia’s next generation NFC-compliant handsets beginning in October while at the same time Visa also announced plans to link with Google’s new Android-powered handsets to make some mobile payment services available, first to Visa Chase cardholders.

As near field communication begins to make inroads in the payments market, the Smart Card Alliance has decided to make this new technology part of one of one of its industry councils. The Contactless Payments Council has thus been renamed the Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.

“Consumers, mobile carriers, banks and technology providers are all clamoring to learn more about proximity mobile payments,” said Randy Vanderhoof, the alliance’s executive director. “The Contactless and Mobile Payments Council has quickly become a primary educational resource, delivering extensive materials on what the technology is, how it works, what implementation methods are available, and what the best practices are,”

An NFC pilot project by contactless smart card producer LEGIC, telecommunications provider Swisscom and vending machine operator Selecta is providing customers an easier way to pay for refreshments with their NFC-enabled phones.

The phones are being tested in Swisscom’s buildings in Bern, Switzerland. Swisscom staff use the mobile phones to get chilled drinks and snacks from Selecta vending machines. The cashless payments are made possible by LEGIC’s card-in-card solution.

Swisscom is also looking at further development of SIM cards as hosts for NFC applications. It is actively engaged in the development of new services and working with mobile phone manufacturers to bring more NFC phones quickly to market.

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