New York & Company’s 600 women’s fashion retail stores is now accepting MasterCard PayPass, becoming the first national apparel merchant to accept contactless payments.

According to MasterCard research, consumer preference and satisfaction is driving PayPass growth and usage globally. A 2007 MasterCard PayPass Benchmark Study found that about 90% of PayPass-using respondents were satisfied with their experience, and 71% of PayPass consumers said they use it as their primary card for everyday purchases.  

NXP Semiconductors, the semiconductor company founded by Philips, will launch its microcontroller smart card IC Mifare Plus at CARTES 2008, November 4-6 in Paris. Mifare Plus is the latest addition to NXP’s Mifare family of chips.

NXP plans to demonstrate some of the security available to customers using Mifare Plus, including 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard and the easy migration path from existing Mifare Classic implementations. 

Another NFC trial, this one in Turkey, is slated to launch next January and will include nine banks with two of the country’s three mobile operators already committed. The country’s card switch and clearing center, BKM (Bankalararasi Kart Merkezi) Interbank Card Center, is handling the year-long pilot and will also act as the trusted service provider.

Any form of NFC device will be supported, says a BKM spokesperson, and any bank or mobile operator is welcome to join the trial.

Read more here.  

Payter, a Dutch mobile payments provider, will be allowing theater goers at Pathe cinemas in the Netherlands to pay for their tickets with their NFC-enabled phones. Consumers would be able to find out where the movie is showing, whether seats are available and then pay for their tickets by tapping one of Payter’s smart posters.

Payter is an NFC payments trial launched two years ago. Some 1,000 consumers are taking part in the trial and have been provided with NFC-enabled phones they can use in shops, parking garages, bars and restaurants in the Rotterdam area.

Read more here.  

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials are considering replacing its current paper card transit tickets with MasterCard’s PayPass for riders of the PATH, MTA and some New Jersey transit buses.

The move would be similar to the experimental program with MasterCard underway at one of New York City’s subway lines where riders can pay for their trips with their MasterCard. First tests of the regional “tap and go” card could begin early next year.

Read more here.  

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Mobile Experience Lab, along with Nokia’s NFC Business Development department, have produced a video and white paper featuring some future applications of near field communication around campus. As noted on its Web site, the lab wants to focus “on radically reinventing and creatively designing connections between people, information and physical places using cutting-edge information technology to improve people’s lives…”