Majority of EMEA retailers plan to increase investment in payments — ACI Worldwide — “55% of retailers and merchants in the EMEA region are planning to increase their investment into new payment capabilities in the next 18 to 24 months… 66% say they are willing to pay more for a broader range of payment services if they add value to their business. 89% say they would expect increased operational efficiency and 88% enhanced customer experience from their investment.”
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Finland’s central bank reports on the economics of Bitcoin
Monopoly without a monopolist : An economic analysis of the bitcoin payment system — Bank of Finland — “Owned by nobody and controlled by an almost immutable protocol the Bitcoin payment system is a platform with two main constituencies: users and profit-seeking miners who maintain the system’s infrastructure… We explore the future potential of such systems and provide design suggestions.”
Irish bank’s new app lets customers open account and start making mobile payments in just five minutes
KBC launch new app to revolutionise account openings — KBC Bank Ireland — “KBC’s app is the first of its kind, and works by allowing customers to open, activate and use their bank account at any time, within just five minutes… Apple or Android Pay is ready to use with the account immediately.”
US banks’ P2P payments service reports 100m transactions
Zelle money movement momentum continues — Zelle — “More than 50,000 consumers are enrolling daily, contributing to more than 100m real-time person-to-person (P2P) payments, totaling US$33.6bn, in the first half of 2017… Next week millions more will have the opportunity to send and receive money with Zelle through a new mobile app.”
Citi Bot to answer customer queries via Facebook Messenger
Citi launches first Facebook Messenger banking chatbot in Singapore that provides customer account information — Citigroup — “Citi Bot will be able to address a range of common customer needs, including account-specific enquiries such as checking of account balances and transactions, providing credit card bill summaries, rewards and points balances and answering frequently asked questions… The second phase of the Citi Bot will introduce more new features such as card activation, ability to lock and unlock credit cards and transaction alerts for cards.”
Rabobank cuts mobile banking errors with IBAN name checking service
Rabobank introduces IBAN Name Check — Rabobank — “’The IBAN Name Check allows customers to check the name of the beneficiary before the transfer is executed,’ says Alexander Zwart, manager online access at Rabobank. ‘If the entered name differs from the registered account holder, the user can cancel the transfer. Or they receive a warning that the account number doesn’t belong to a company but a private individual. This makes online and mobile banking even easier and safer.’”
Mastercard tests service that lets anyone collect cash from an ATM with just a mobile phone
ATM innovation for emergency assistance and merchant rebates — Mastercard — “There are situations when money needs to be sent and received as cash, particularly in emergency situations or when the recipient is unbanked. With Mastercard Cash Pick-Up, a bank can help an individual or company send money to anyone with a valid mobile phone number.”
KGI analyst explains how Apple’s Face ID technology will work
Inner workings of Apple’s ‘Face ID’ camera for ‘iPhone 8’ detailed in report — AppleInsider — “In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo details the components, manufacturing process and behind-the-scenes technology that make Apple’s depth-sensing camera tick.”
Samsung Pay rolls out loyalty program in Singapore
Samsung introduces latest series of enhanced wearables and new Samsung Pay loyalty programme — Samsung — “Consisting of three loyalty tiers – Gold, Silver and Bronze – users can level up across the tiers after meeting a target number of transactions. With each level-up achieved in the Samsung Rewards programme, users can get to earn more points per transaction, reaping additional rewards in return.”
iPhone X to combine face recognition and a side button double click for Apple Pay
iOS 11 GM leak reveals details on Face ID, Apple Pay, wireless charging, and A11 chip in iPhone X — MacRumours — “The iPhone X will authenticate a payment using facial recognition, with payment confirmed using a double click on the side button (sleep/wake button) of the device.”
Singapore to add mobile options to contactless transit payments trial
Parliament: Cashless trial for public transport to be extended to more payment types from next year — The Straits Times — “A trial system that allows commuters to pay their public transport fares using contactless credit or debit cards will be extended to more payment types including Visa and Nets 2.0 from next June (2018). Mobile payment modes — such as Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay — will also be available from the first quarter of next year as part of the trial.”
London’s commuters can now top up their travel cards by smartphone
New TfL app enables passengers to top up their Oyster card ‘on the go’ — Transport for London — “The new app, which was designed by TfL and developed by Cubic Transportation Systems, is free to download via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and enables customers to use their smartphone to quickly add pay-as-you-go credit or Travelcards to their Oyster card. These can then be added after 30 minutes by simply touching the Oyster card on the yellow card reader at any Tube or rail station, tram stop or River Bus pier as part of a journey.”
US carriers to enter mobile authentication market
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon team to develop mobile authentication solution — AT&T — “AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are joining forces and resources through the creation of the Mobile Authentication Taskforce. The mission of this taskforce is to develop a mobile authentication solution for enterprises and customers in 2018.”
Visa comments on withdrawal of Bitcoin card services
Steps being taken to address non-compliance with existing rules, rather than the introduction of new regulations, are the reason a number of Bitcoin card issuers are having to withdraw availability of their services from non-European customers, Visa has told NFC World... More
EMVCo updates tokenization specification
Payments standards body EMVCo has updated its Payment Tokenisation Technical Framework to introduce the new roles of ‘token programme’ and ‘token user’, refine the roles of ‘token service provider’ and ‘token requestor’ and detail “their interrelationships within the global payments environment.”... More
Half of US stores are now equipped to process chip cards
Chip-enabled merchants up; Counterfeit fraud down — Visa — “As of the end of June 2017, 2.3m US merchant locations, 50% of storefronts, are chip enabled. And with more than 449m Visa chip cards in the country, representing 62% of Visa cards, counterfeit fraud has continued to decline — 58% at chip-enabled merchants in March 2017 when compared to March 2016.”
Researchers demo voice assistant security flaw
A simple design flaw makes it astoundingly easy to hack Siri and Alexa — Co.Design — “Using a technique called the DolphinAttack, a team from Zhejiang University translated typical vocal commands into ultrasonic frequencies that are too high for the human ear to hear, but perfectly decipherable by the microphones and software powering our always-on voice assistants. This relatively simple translation process lets them take control of gadgets with just a few words uttered in frequencies none of us can hear.”
US Federal Reserve sets out plans for ‘safe, ubiquitous, faster payments’
The Federal Reserve has released details of nine new tactics it plans to employ to improve the US payments system across five key areas — speed, security, efficiency, international payments, and collaboration... More
Bank of America rolls out cardless ATM withdrawals
Bank of America debuts new mobile tools focused on personalization — Bank of America — “Customers can now start an ATM withdrawal directly from their mobile banking app. Customers simply log into the app and select the desired amount to withdraw. When they arrive at the ATM, they can either use their smartphone or debit card, enter their pin, and a personalized screen will display asking the customer if they are here to complete the withdrawal, which eliminates four steps at the ATM.”
Tesco unveils Tesco Pay+
Tesco unveils Tesco Pay+ — Tesco — “PayQwiq, the digital wallet app, is to be re-launched as Tesco Pay+… The journey of our digital wallet has been an exciting one and we’ve learned a great deal about our customers and how they shop in that time. We believe that Tesco Pay+ is going to help the customer journey, offering greater little helps, and we’re looking forward to revealing more in a few weeks’ time.”