Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has launched a virtual bank branch for Facebook, letting its online banking customers check balances, pay credit card bills, transfer money between accounts and track expenses from within the social network... More
Archive: News in brief
Aston Club reaches 22,000 users
Australian mobile payment startup Aston Club has revealed it has signed up more than 22,000 users since its launch last year and is now being accepted in over 260 hospitality venues across the country... More
TCH plans real time payments
The Clearing House (TCH) and its member banks are planning to build a real-time payment system in the US that will enable consumers and businesses to send and receive immediate payments directly from their accounts... More
Bookatable tests iBeacon at 119 restaurants
Europe’s largest online restaurant booking website is testing Apple’s iBeacon location technology to send offers and menus to potential diners toting iPhones as they pass by a participating location... More
Apple Pay to launch in Korea?
Apple is eyeing up the possibility of launching Apple Pay in Korea, Korea Bizwire reports... More
Amazon Rewards to join Apple Pay
Amazon has confirmed to TechCrunch that its Rewards Visa Card, powered by Chase, is to support Apple Pay in the future and the company is already working on making this happen... More
Apple builds NFC tech into iPad Air 2
A teardown of the iPad Air 2 by iFixit has found that Apple has included an NXP 65V10 NFC module in the new tablet... More
Ecuador’s central bank plans national mobile wallet
Banco Central del Ecuador is to launch a mobile payments scheme to act as the national mobile wallet in the country, Payments Views reports... More
Alipay Wallet hits 190m users
Alibaba-owned online payments giant Alipay’s Alipay Wallet app now has 190 million active users in China who use the solution to shop online via their smartphones, pay bills and pay for public transport... More
Johnny Rockets puts tablets in 200 restaurants
Hamburger restaurant chain Johnny Rockets is to roll out E la Carte’s tablet-based Presto platform to more than 200 locations in the US in November after a three month pilot that saw an 11.2% improvement in table turn time... More
Acer Pay is on the way
Taiwanese computer maker Acer is to join Apple and Samsung in introducing a payment service for users of its mobile phones and wearable devices, Want China Times reports... More
Beep’nGo hits 5m downloads
Mobeam’s mobile coupon and offer app Beep’nGo has now surpassed five million downloads to compatible Android devices... More
Newspaper tests BLE beacons
Dutch newspaper publisher NDC Media is testing Bluetooth beacons with thirty shops in the town of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, to send offers to consumer smartphones running the Lightcurb mobile app... More
23% of Canadians have made a mobile payment
Almost a quarter of Canadians (23%) have now made a mobile payment in-store with nearly a third (29%) having used their device to make an online purchase, new research from PayPal Canada has found... More
Shopkick drives $1bn in revenue
Location-based shopping app Shopkick reports that it has driven more than US$1bn in revenue for its partner retailers since its launch in 2010, more than half of which occurred in the past year... More
Kotak launches P2P payments for Facebook
Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched a bank-agnostic payment service for Facebook that will enable 250 million Indian bank account holders to transfer money by choosing a recipient’s name from their friends list... More
iOS 8.1 brings Apple Pay NFC payments to iPhone
Version 8.1 of iOS is now available for download, and brings with it the US consumer rollout of the Apple Pay mobile payments system... More
Over 20m NFC devices now in use in Japan
There are 20.55 million NFC mobile handsets in use in Japan according to new data compiled by the Mobile NFC Association... More
Bionym begins shipping wristband
Canadian startup Bionym has begun shipping its Nymi wristband to partners and key developers after starting to take pre-orders in September last year... More
Amex commits $10m to EMV upgrades
American Express is to launch a US$10m Small Merchant EMV Assistance Program in February 2015 to drive adoption of EMV... More