We tend to see the race for NFC-based payment solutions in terms of telco-controlled ISIS vs. Google. If you view the race in such terms, you have to ask: Where the heck are the banks?

ISIS has not publically announced bank partners. The biggest bank commitment to date has come from Citigroup, which has thrown in with the Google effort. It's fair to say that banks may be wary of aligning whole hog with either camp. We've long suggested that they should play more of a leadership role, allowing them to more tightly control the technology, the user experience, the marketing and ultimately the revenue stream.

To be sure, some banks--like Bank of America and U.S. Bank--have tested or plan to pilot small-scale NFC programs. Others are thinking about the optimal way to enter the market. In that vein, the NFC news from mFoundry is interesting. The firm has inked a deal with MasterCard--whose PayPass network ranks as a power--to allow banks to more directly offer NFC-based payments to their card users.

MFoundry has essentially built in NFC capability to its widely used mobile banking solutions. The firm's mobile apps will apparently be able to handle NFC payments as early as next year via PayPass. It will be up to banks as to whether they want to offer it to customers or not.

This represents one way to the new-era payments market, one that doesn't require them to commit to either the Google or the ISIS consortium. At some point, however, the handset will have to natively support such an effort, which they likely will. As for MasterCard, it is spreading its bets in search of fast adoption. It is also a partner with Google on the Digital Wallet service. 

For more:
- here's an article from gigaom on the mFoundry news 

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