Financial services information provider VRL released a report examining the status of contactless card issuance and usage across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

In ‘Contactless Cards: Tentative Steps,’ VRL reports a major lag between contactless card issuance and merchant acceptance. According to VRL, the majority of merchants are unlikely to fund migration to contactless payments unless a clear business case can be identified. As evidence, VRL cites the current situation in the US, where there are 100 million contactless cards in issue, yet only two percent of merchants able to accept them.

Oracle Corporation has announced that its latest Java Card 3.0.4 platform will include support for NFC to enable secure communication between devices, reports Hothardware.com.

According to Oracle, Java Card enables smart cards and other devices with very limited memory to run small applications, called applets, that employ Java technology. Almost any type of smart card can use Java Card technology, including SIM cards, bank cards, government and health care IDs, smart transit tickets and physical and logical access control credentials.