While one of the bigger disappointments with Apple's new iPhone 5 has been its lack of Near Field Communication (NFC), a report today suggests that Apple is currently in talks to bring fingerprint technology to products to secure mobile payment via NFC, according to tech website The Australian. Biosecurity firm Microlatch is rumored to be working with the company now to bring fingerprint technology to Apple's future devices.

Former head of the Commonwealth Bank and lead investor of the Australian firm Microlatch, David Murray, revealed to the website that his company owns patented technology, which reportedly meets rigorous banking standards. The technology does not need central processing or storage, according to Murray. The biometric technology is "self-registering," he added.

"There have been acquisitions that suggest that people are positioning themselves around these biosecurity products securing mobile phones in a far more satisfactory way for people," said Murray, according to Apple Insider.

Details of the agreement between Microlatch and Apple haven't commented on by either company as of yet. However, its obvious Apple is seriously interested in integrating mobile payment systems and biometrics into its new devices, as we saw in July when it purchased fingerprint sensor maker AuthenTec for $356 million. Key to the move was AuthenTec's "Smart Sensor" fingerprint reader, which not only boosts security but also lets a user launch different features on a gadget depending on which finger is used.

AuthenTec specializes in mobile phone security and is developing 2D fingerprint sensors for Apple, according to the merger documents. The two companies had been talking since late last year. AuthenTec signed a development contract with Apple in July which runs until September 2013, just in time for next year's iPhone launch.

In a recent company blogpost, AuthenTec executive Art Stewart wrote, "The real sweet spot for today's smart sensor is the NFC-enabled smartphone, where the smart sensor not only strengthens security but greatly increases the speed and convenience of mobile payment transactions. It accomplishes this by reducing multiple steps into one simple user action."

With a single swipe of a finger across the smart sensor, the technology allows a user to unlock their phone and turn on the NFC transmitter to enable the payment, which is then made by tapping the phone. Adding fingerprint scanning to the iPhone could both improve security for features such as payments and boarding passes, and speed up the transaction.

NFC, or a near field communications chip, can communicate with scanners, and let consumers easily swipe and pay at cash registers.  Everyone from Samsung, and HTC, to Google, and Nokia are currently running NFC chips in their devices. Granted, NFC is a technology still largely in its infancy, which is why many assume it was left out of Apple's new iPhone 5. Analysts, like Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee, argue the technology just isn't there yet, and that the chip hogs too much battery power.

According to Reuters, an Apple-filed regulatory filing hinted at the development of "a 2D fingerprint sensor for Apple that is suitable for use in an Apple product," but did not state whether this would be an iOS-powered mobile device, such as the iPhone or the iPad, or a Mac computer.

The scanning technology could be used to unlock company handsets which carry sensitive information, or to authenticate payments, and would likely flesh out Passbook enough to make it an enviable feature for iOS users.

Apple's recent acquisition of Authentec combined with these Microlatch talks suggests that the company's future devices will almost certainly feature some kind of biometrics, and NFC.