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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – With contactless card payment growing more popular in Europe and high-profile NFC mobile-payments services such as Apple Pay starting to gain a foothold there, payment schemes are preparing to significantly raise or eliminate caps on transaction value to try to encourage even more growth in contactless and NFC payments.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Barclaycard, one of the top payment card issuers in the UK, plans to launch NFC payments from its mobile-banking app in November using host card emulation, which will allow the issuer to avoid putting its payment applications on secure elements to roll out mobile payments.

While the UK’s top UK contactless issuer, Barclays, and its credit card arm, Barclaycard, predict a doubling of contactless transactions this year, numbers remain relatively small, with even the most active users tapping just over four times a month, a spokesman for the issuer confirmed to NFC Times.

While a sizable percentage of UK consumers say they are ready to use their smartphones as mobile wallets to make payments at the physical point of sale–especially if they receive incentives and security assurances–mobile wallets are unlikely to take off in 2013, according to UK-based market research firm ICM Research.

Large Spanish retail bank, La Caixa, plans to begin distributing 200,000 contactless stickers this month, deciding not to wait for NFC commercial launches to start its mobile-payment rollout.

Orange UK and Barclaycard have announced the availability of the popular Samsung Galaxy S III for their Quick Tap NFC payment service, as they seek to spur interest in their as yet little-used service.

Farhan Ahmad, who headed U.S.-based Discover Financial Services’ prepaid and emerging payments units, including its nascent NFC and contactless programs, has left Discover for UK-based issuer Barclaycard, NFC Times has learned.

Mobile operator Orange UK and bus company Stagecoach have launched a small transit ticketing trial, which they say could lead to a national rollout next year.

Despite the coming availability of more NFC phones from its partner Orange and the opening up of its prepaid mobile-payment application to funding from other issuers, UK-based Barclaycard has decided it needs more exposure for its contactless m-payment service.

Orange UK has announced what it calls the United Kingdom’s first mobile-contactless retail rewards scheme, enabling subscribers with NFC phones to tap smart posters to receive free food or drink items from a UK restaurant chain.