Telefónica, one of the largest telecommunications companies worldwide, and Canadian-based handset manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) have announced a trial program of the Telefónica Wallet for BlackBerry phones.

Telefónica will roll out its Wallet solution to 350 employees at its corporate campus in Madrid, Spain. Employees that are part of the pilot project will also be able to pay by tapping their smartphones against an NFC-reader. They can also use their BlackBerry phones to gain physical access to their offices. Partners participating in the pilot include local banks and retailers such as food stores and gas stations.

The service uses SIM card based Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, a solution that was recently standardized by the GSMA. It still requires a compatible phone with an NFC transmitter as the SIM card only provides a secure identification platform. Currently, only BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 (they are also certified as MasterCard PayPass-approved devices) smartphones are supported.

The Telefónica wallet aims to replace the physical wallet in the future. Matthew Key, Chairman and CEO Telefonica Digital, commented: “We are getting ever closer to the point where our customers will be able to take the contents of their wallets and put them on their mobiles. Trials such as this are important to ensuring a great customer experience and we look forward to seeing the launch of commercial wallet services in several markets next year.”

Germany-based payment service provider Wirecard Group strengthens its position in Asia. Yesterday, the company announced to take over Systems@Work Pte Ltd headquartered in Singapore for €34 million in cash.

Systems@Work, is one of the fastest growing electronic payment providers for banks and merchants in in Asia. Under its brand TeleMoney the company provides payment processing services for e- and m-commerce as well as point-of-sale in East Asia. Among its more than 500 business customers are big brands such as Carrefour, Starhub and the Singapore Land Transport Authority, the DBS and other major banks in the region. Dr. Markus Braun, CEO of Wirecard AG commented: “With this transaction we strengthen our position in East Asia and grow our regional customer portfolio further. Systems@Work’s approach to rely primarily on Internet technologies for payment processing matches our own strategy“.

Marketing research firm ABI Research has released a new study, Mobile Wallet Strategies, that forecasts mobile wallet users will grow to 594 million in 2016. According to ABI Research, the growth of mobile wallet services is driven by new NFC-capable smartphones and innovative business cases that will attract more users to use mobile wallet services.

The current market leaders are mobile network operators (MNOs), but their market share will decline in the next years as Apple and Google will claim loyal users says the report. MNOs will provide 75% of all mobile wallets in 2012, shrinking to 63% in 2016. Mark Beccue, senior analyst, mobile commerce and NFC commented: “By the end of 2012, Google will prove that Google Wallet is a hit with consumers. By 2014, we will see Google Wallets supported alongside competing MNO offerings globally.”

International coffeehouse chain Starbucks has announced to roll out its Starbucks for iPhone App in the UK in 2012. The app allows consumers to pay at Starbucks through their smartphone.

The company’s mobile payment service for smartphones is already available in the US since January 2011. After downloading the app onto their smartphone and linking it to a Starbucks Card account, customers can pay at Starbucks by turning their phones into a mobile wallet. The app generates a unique bar code that will be scanned by the cashier when purchasing. In addition to the mobile payment capability, the app allows customers to manage their Starbucks Card account, check their card balance and reload their account.

The mobile payment service is quite successful in the US, Starbucks has already processed more than 20 million mobile payment transactions since January 2011.

UK-based payment provider VocaLink has announced that it will join forces with payment solution technology providers Clear2Pay and Fundtech to provide a global real-time payment processing solution. With its new partners VocaLink will enable banks to offer their customers a real-time, multi-channel payment service including service options for mobile and browser.

VocaLink provides the central infrastructure of Faster Payments Service (FPS), a service to process financial transactions between different banks in the UK in near real-time. Since the launch of FPS in May 2008, the company has processed more than one billion transactions.

According to VocaLink, the new offering means financial institutions can integrate immediate payments solution and offer new payment channels, such as peer-to-peer (p2p) payments via the mobile to their customers. Marc Terry, Managing Director, Global Transaction Services at VocaLink, commented: “The drive towards immediacy in payments is becoming increasingly important as consumers want to make payments from anywhere, at anytime. At VocaLink we understand the need for an integrated end-to-end payments system and are extremely pleased to be working with Clear2Pay to accelerate the move towards global immediate payments.”

Visa has introduced a new prepaid account that can be accessed through mobile phones for consumers in developing countries. The service is enabled by Fundamo, a mobile financial services provider in developing economies recently acquired by Visa for $110 million in cash.

Network operators and financial institution will be able to offer Visa prepaid accounts on mobile phones to under-banked and unbanked consumers. The credit card company’s goal is to provide consumers in developing countries access to secure electronic payments and financial services. Jim McCarthy, head of product for Visa Inc. commented: “Mobile technology has become the single most important driver of financial inclusion that is enabling financial institutions, mobile network operators and Visa to connect unbanked consumers to each other and the global economy.”

The service will be offered first by MTN, a mobile network operator (MNO) in Africa and the Middle East, to customers in Nigeria and Uganda. Visa’s new service will enhance the MNO’s current Mobile Money offering, it enables account holders to send funds to each other, send and receive international remittances, make purchases at merchants or online where Visa is accepted or withdraw funds at Visa ATMs.

PayPal has released a Send Money application on Facebook. The App lets users send money to his/her friends on Facebook along with a e-card, photo or video that is posted automatically to the recipient’s wall.

Sending money directly from one person to another is nothing new to PayPal, the company originally started as a service to transfer money between Palm PDAs. In order to send funds to Facebook contacts via PayPal, the user has to log into Facebook and authorize the Send Money app. After login to his/her PayPal account, the client can select a recipient, the amount of money and the e-card. Person-to-person (p2p) transactions within the US are free of charge if the PayPal account of the sending person is funded by a bank account. The service has nothing to do with Facebook Credits, the social network’s own digital currency which does not support p2p transactions so far.

PayPal sees big potential in combining e-cards and p2p money transfer via Facebook – according to the Greeting Card Association Americans send 500 million e-cards each year. JB Coutinho, Senior Product Marketing Manager at PayPal commented in a blog post: “… we’re bringing the largest online payments company to the world’s largest social network to make it even easier to send money to your friends and family directly from Facebook”

Recently, Google has announced to merge its online payment solution Google Checkout with mobile payment service Google Wallet. Google Checkout will be transitioned into Wallet, to provide one payment solution for buying online, mobile and in-store. Furthermore, Google starts to integrate Wallet as payment method on Android Market, YouTube, Google+ Games and other Google sites.

Users of Google Checkout will be redirected to a notification screen informing them of the change the next time they log into their Checkout account. The Information stored in the Checkout account, such as address, billing address and card numbers can be transferred easily into Google Wallet. According to Google, there are no changes necessary for merchants that offer Google’s payment solution. After the upgrade, users of Google Wallet will be able to make purchases on merchant sites that accept Google Checkout.

Combining the two services will help Google to increase the number of consumers and merchants that use Wallet and compete against other companies in the mobile payment ecosphere, such as PayPal and Square.

Today, the GSMA announced that 45 of the world’s largest mobile operators have committed to support and implement SIM-based Near Field Communications (NFC) solutions and services. The GSMA has also published a new set of industry specifications to enable the development of secure and ubiquitous mobile NFC services. Standardization of mobile NFC allows interoperability between NFC devices and enables users to benefit from services around the world, regardless of mobile operator, network or device type.

Many merchants see significant potential for NFC as a payment technology: According to ABI Research, 85% of all new POS terminals shipped in 2016 will be NFC-enabled. Embedding NFC into SIM cards looks like a very smart move to bring NFC technology to the masses.

Franco Bernabe, Chairman of the GSMA, and CEO and Chairman of Telecom Italia commented: “NFC is an important innovation for consumers around the world, and while it is perhaps best known for enabling secure mobile payments, it will also enable a wide range of innovative and exciting new services and applications, such as mobile ticketing, entertainment services, secure access to hotels or cars, loyalty schemes and couponing, among others.”

Visa has just introduced its digital wallet and payment service V.me by Visa. The commercial start is scheduled for 2012, but Visa has already launched an invitation-only beta in the US and Canada.

With V.me by Visa consumers will be able to pay online as well as in person with a mobile device. According to Visa, consumers can use the service just like a physical wallet to pay wherever and whenever they want. Instead of entering their account information every time they want to shop from their smartphone, users can use V.me for the checkout process. V.me will also provide features beyond payments such as transaction alerts, promotions and reward programs. Visa highlights that its digital wallet will not be limited to Visa cards only – numerous payment methods including MasterCard and bank accounts can be used to fund V.me.