VERIZON TO INTEGRATE AMERICAN EXPRESS MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEM INTO DEVICES

Verizon Wireless and American Express announced on Monday that Verizon Wireless will begin to integrate American Express’ “Serve” mobile payment solution into its phones and tablets. The agreement will allow Verizon Wireless customers to make mobile payments from their phones, provided that they have an existing Serve account. “Our collaboration with Verizon highlights the speed at which Serve is evolving to reach a wide audience,” said Dan Schulman, group president, Enterprise Growth, American Express. “Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to complement their busy lifestyle with a trusted payment platform that delivers a fast, flexible and secure way to manage their day-to-day mobile purchases, and together we’re taking the necessary steps to make mobile commerce a reality.”

Serve is similar to PayPal and allows users to send or receive money for goods and services. American Express announced the service in March in tandem with Serve apps for Android and iOS.

LEAK: GOOGLE TO UNVEIL MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICE ON MAY 26TH

Sources speaking with Bloomberg claim Google is finally ready to take the wraps off its mobile payment service. According to a new report, Google will host an event on Thursday, May 26th to introduce its new service, which will initially be available only to Sprint subscribers in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. who own the company’s Nexus S 4G smartphone. The system will be NFC-based, and Bloomberg did not specify which retail partners would support Google’s initial offering.

Google has made a series of moves leading up to the imminent announcement this week, such as its recent acquisition of stealth Toronto-based start up Zetawire, which had filed a patent for “a payment system, an advertising system, and an identity management system” combined into a single product. While Google’s preliminary offering might not include unique technology such as Zetawire’s, it’s safe to say the Internet giant has a lot in store for us as it enters this emerging space.

SQUARE'S NEW iPAD PAYMENT SYSTEM MIGHT REPLACE CASH REGISTERS

Mobile payments startup Square is announcing big numbers today—500,000 Square card readers shipped, 1 million Square transactions in May, and the startup is now processing $3 million in mobile payments per day. Clearly the company is on a roll in terms of traction and usage. And CEO Jack Dorsey is also revealing the next generation of Square. And Square is about to get a whole lot more disruptive.

Today, Dorsey is revealing Square Register, a high-powered point of sale replacement for cash registers and point of sale terminals. And the company is taking it one step further for consumers by launching the Square Card Case, a way for purchasers to access a local merchants’ goods, prices, location, loyalty card and more.

For background, Square offers an iPhone, Android and iPad app which allows merchants to process and manage credit card transactions with a handy little credit card swiping device that plugs into the headset/microphone jack. The device and service is the brainchild of Twitter co-founder and recently appointed product lead Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey. And Square recently raised $27.5 million in new funding, and announced a strategic investment from credit card company Visa. In Q1, Square did $66 million in payment volume (the company expected $40 million) and is now in track to process $1 billion in payment volume within a year.

Square’s COO Keith Rabois tells us that as the startup has created a payments product for small businesses, they’ve learned that many businesses have more needs than simply having a credit card processor. One of these needs is being able to not only accept cards, but also communicate with customers more efficiently. So today, Square is launching this brand new version of its iPad app, Square Register.

Rabois says the iPad app makes these expensive and cumbersome terminals obsolete for merchants. Not only is the reader and app free (and beautifully designed), but the register is designed to help create and maintain meaningful relationships with customers. Historically, Square’s readers always stored every purchaser’s receipt for merchants and allowed merchant’s to send a copy of the receipt to the purchaser via SMS and email. It was fairly simple.

Now, with the upgrade, merchants can send customers a link to download an app on their mobile phone called a Square Card Case. And this gives merchants a whole new level of engagement with their customers. And data is another big component of Square’s announcement—Dorsey says merchants will have Google Analytics style data that merchants can access, such as how many muffins were sold, and to which types of customers, and more.

AMAZON JUMPING INTO MOBILE PAYMENTS POOL

According to a report filed by Bloomberg, online retail giant Amazon is toying with the idea of launching a mobile payments service. Citing two anonymous sources, the publication notes that the service would “let consumers pay for goods in brick-and-mortar stores using their mobile phones.” Amazon is purportedly testing payment technologies based on NFC (Near Field Communications) in an effort to expand its Payments service. This is the company’s latest venture into the mobile world. Amazon officially opened its Appstore for Android on March 22nd and its Cloud Drive music storage/streaming service on March 29th. The company has not made any public statements about future plans involving mobile payments or NFC.

SAMSUNG AND VISA PARTNER TO BRING NFC MOBILE PAYMENTS TO 2012 LONDON OLYMPICS

On Thursday Samsung and Visa announced a new partnership under which the two firms will provide an NFC mobile payment solution before, during, and after the London 2012 Olympics. The two companies will release an Olympics and Paralympics Games mobile handset in London that’s equipped with mobile NFC technology, Visa’s payment application, and a special SIM card. Here’s how it will work: When you’re ready to make a purchase, you’ll just have to open the Visa application on your phone and then hold it in front of a special contactless reader. There are over 60,000 contactless readers already in London, and Visa says it’s continuing to work with banks and retailers to increase its NFC foundation.

The NFC-enabled phone, with its Visa SIM card, will first be available to Samsung and Visa sponsored athletes, and it will also be available to consumers through mobile operators. It’s unclear what the phone model is, or how much it will cost. “This mobile payment device will be available in the UK initially, and we plan to expand the service to other countries in Europe and around the world where contactless payment facilities are available in the near future,” said Seokpil Kim, President & CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe. Visa is currently rolling out its NFC mobile payment program in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the United States

HUGE MAJORITY OF NORTH AMERICANS LIKE SECURE MOBILE PAYMENTS

A recent study conducted by payment solution provider Mobio Identity Systems suggests that North Americans are eager to see mobile payments become a reality. At the same time, however, security is a top concern for the majority of potential users.

Mobio recently surveyed 1,085 people across North America and found that the overwhelming majority — 94% — would use mobile payments if they knew the system was secure. Mobio’s study also found that 73% of respondents said security was their main concern regarding mobile payments, while 12.4% said simplicity and 8.5% said speed. As such, it’s safe to say companies looking to bring mobile payments to the mainstream market must focus a tremendous amount of effort on security.