MasterCard to Offer Swipeless Cards

MasterCard said at an industry conference in Memphis Monday that it planned to have nearly four million "swipeless" RFID credit cards in circulation by year's end. Dubbed PayPass, a user will only have to wave his or her card in front of a sensor to make a payment on the item. American Express announced a similar service in June.

MasterCard is also working with cell phone providers in order to allow consumers to use phones as payment devices, and is now in a pre-launch phase in the United States. Similar programs have already proven successful in Asia. MasterCard America president Ruth Ann Marshall acknowledged that the Internet is causing "substantial ripples in the personal finance industry," and companies like PayPal -- and potentially Google -- pose a threat to MasterCard's business.