Voice Commerce Group, a financial services company and developer of voice-based biometric authentication technology, has announced its application to become a principal member of Visa Europe has been successful.

Visa Europe has announced that 12 million of its contactless payment cards are expected to be in circulation in the UK by the end of this year - a marked leap from the previously estimated 10 million.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan shows that current smart card-based transit projects in growing European and world cities will lead to an 11% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in smart card shipment from 2009 to 2015.

The Canadian contactless payments market is set to take off as large stores rapidly adopt the new technology, and smaller merchants threaten to make the jump as well, according to itbusiness.ca.