Barclays has announced plans to roll its bPay prepaid wearable payments offering into its Pingit mobile payments app, “giving 3.6m users access to simple ways to pay on the go”... More
The NFC Forum has released a new candidate specification that makes it easy for mobile payments services based on QR codes to add NFC functionality, giving “payment service providers and consumers the opportunity to take advantage of the simple and secure NFC-based payment solutions already in use worldwide.”... More
W3C approves WebAuthn as the web standard for password-free logins — VentureBeat — “The specification lets users log into online accounts using biometrics, mobile devices, and/or Fido security keys. WebAuthn is supported by Android and Windows 10. On the browser side, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge all added support last year. Apple has supported WebAuthn in preview versions of Safari since December.”
GSMA report highlights 20% annual increase in mobile money accounts to more than 866m worldwide — GSMA — “At the end of 2018, there were more than 866m registered accounts in 90 countries — a 20% increase on 2017. The report also shows that the mobile money industry processed transactions worth US$1.3bn a day in 2018, with digital transaction values growing at more than twice the rate of cash transactions.”
Mastercard and du partner to usher in a new era of payments experiences and security across the Middle East and Africa — Mastercard — “NuDetect uses machine learning to analyse ‘passive biometrics’ like how a person types, holds their phone, moves their mouse or where they use their phone, to anticipate and prevent fraudulent card-not-present transactions, which includes ecommerce payments. The process to verify the user occurs without introducing any friction or interruption in the transaction.”
Two-thirds of consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments over cash and physical cards — Entersekt — “More than two-thirds (68%) of regular banking app users in the US would ‘like to do all banking and payments via one single mobile app’. A similar majority (67%) claim they would be less likely to use cash or physical credit cards if they had such an app. The lure of an all-in-one combination app is stronger among younger adults (18 to 44 years) who regularly used banking apps: just over three-quarters (76%) want one, compared with only 50% of those aged 55 and over.”
Five-currency basket: Brics countries create a single payment service — Izvestia (translation) — “One of the likely scenarios for the project is the creation of a special online wallet that will unite the payment systems of all the Brics countries… The common wallet will work in the same way as existing payment services, such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. To this end, a separate cloud platform will be created that will connect the national payment systems of the five countries.”
China’s mobile payment users reach 583 million in 2018 — Xinhua — “About 583m people used mobile payment in China in 2018, up 10.7% compared with 2017, according to a report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)… About 67.2% of China’s internet users used mobile payments offline, up from 65.2% in 2017.”
Beatie Wolfe’s ‘intelligent’ Raw Space album features songs embedded in business cards — Dezeen — “Musician Beatie Wolfe has collaborated with eight graphic designers to create an album of cards that listeners tap against a smartphone to play… Scanning one of the business card-sized boards using a NFC reader app reveals an individual page for the track, which is complete with lyrics, the music video, photos, song notes and information about the card itself.”
Belfast tech startup using automated lip-reading to make user authentication systems more resistant to spoofing attacks — Liopa — “LipSecure works in conjunction with the vendor’s existing FR [facial recognition] system and prompts the user to repeat a random sequence of digits that appear on their screen. Liopa’s AI-based Visual Speech Recognition (VSR) technology checks if the digits have been spoken or mimed correctly and thus determines if there is a ‘live’ person present.”
PARTNER NEWS: NXP is adding support for FeliCa, the Japanese variant of NFC, to its NFC chipsets, beginning with a new PN81 series... More
UPDATED J-Coin Pay, a digital currency-based payments service that will support both P2P payments and enable consumers to make QR mobile payments in stores, will go live in Japan on 1 March, developer Mizuho Financial Group has announced... More
Technical specification: Cyber Security for Consumer Internet of Things — ETSI — “Provision 4.4-1: Credentials and security-sensitive data shall be stored securely within services and on devices… Secure, trusted storage mechanisms can be used to secure security-sensitive data, such as those provided by a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and associated trusted, secure storage, or the secure storage and processing capabilities of software running on a Universal Integrated Circuit Card UICC/embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC).”
Positive interim results of the market test with automatic ticketing — SBB (translation) — “With the SBB Preview App, customers can check in with the ‘EasyRide’ function when they start their journey and check themselves out at any location. ‘EasyRide function’ recognizes the distance travelled and automatically books the appropriate ticket, and always at the fairest price… The definitive introduction of ‘EasyRide’ on SBB Mobile is scheduled for next year.”
Better security for ID documents: Council Presidency and European Parliament reach provisional agreement — The Council of the European Union — “Under the proposed new rules, identity cards will have to be produced in a uniform, credit card format (ID-1), include a machine-readable zone, and follow the minimum security standards set out by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). They will also need to include a photo and two fingerprints of the cardholder, stored in a digital format, on a contactless chip.”
SKT teams up with Deutsche Telekom for blockchain biz — Korea Times — “SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs will work together to develop and commercialize blockchain-based mobile identification that can be utilized in various areas including access control, dealings and contracts… The firm said blockchain-based digital identification could also replace identification cards issued by the government such as passports.”
PayPal CEO predicts digital payments industry will mature into a $100 trillion market — CNBC — “PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told CNBC that the digital payments industry may become a US$100tn market as the financial technology sector continues to grow rapidly… ‘We live in the space of digital commerce and digital commerce is exploding still around the world,’ he said. ‘There’s an explosion in digital commerce and we’re riding that wave.'”
Citymapper Pass — Citymapper — “Our Pass on day one will cover public transport, cycles (Santander’s Docked scheme) and cabs (our Citymapper Ride service). Over time we will add other modes and partners such as additional cycle and cab services, car sharing, scooters and well.. whatever else gets invented next… Pass will integrate with Apple Pay and Google Pay so users can decide to use them as virtual cards as well.”
Apple, Goldman Sachs team up on credit card paired with iPhone — The Wall Street Journal — “The card will be rolled out to employees for testing in the next few weeks and officially launch later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies hope to lure cardholders by offering them extra features on Apple’s Wallet app, which will let them set spending goals, track their rewards and manage their balances, the people said.”
STMicroelectronics breaks major milestone for ST33 secure chips with over one billion sold to secure the connected world — STMicroelectronics — “STMicroelectronics… has recorded cumulative sales of over one billion units for its ST33 embedded-security ICs… Based on a common certified secure platform featuring state-of-the-art cyber protection, the ST33 family’s flexible architecture has enabled ST to lead the development of new classes of security chips including embedded SIMs (eSIMs), embedded secure elements (eSEs), and trusted platform modules (TPMs).”