Brazil’s central bank lays out reasons for developing CBDC

Banco Central Do Brasil logo for the Drex central bank digital currency

The central bank digital currency (CBDC) that Brazil’s central bank is to pilot for retail payments in stores is to be called Drex and will be “a step forward in democratizing access for individuals and entrepreneurs to the benefits of the digitalization of the economy”, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has announced... More






Visa reports on passenger preferences for transit payments

More than four in ten transit passengers worldwide say that tapping their own debit or credit card to make open loop contactless fare payments is their preferred fare payment option (42%), followed by tapping a card stored in their mobile wallet (39%), using a closed loop transit card (38%), cash (31%) and app-based payment (29%), according to a Visa survey... More


Samsung Wallet to go live in eight more markets

Samsung Wallet logo

Samsung Wallet will soon go live in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, enabling users to store and use digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More


One in two Brazilians now store contactless credentials on their smartphone

Survey graph showing one in two Brazilians now store contactless digital ID credentials on their smartphone

More than half of the Brazilian population are now storing and using a digital version of their voter ID card (54%) or driving licence (51%) on their smartphone, while just over four in ten have a digital vaccination card (43%) and one in four have uploaded the recently launched digital Carta de Identidade Nacional national ID card (25%), according to a survey... More


Brazil begins rollout of contactless mobile identity cards

Paper version of Brazil's digital national identity card

Residents of six Brazilian states and the country’s Federal District can now generate a digital national identity card that they can store on their Apple or Android smartphone and use to verify their ID for multiple uses including accessing public services and contactless cross-border travel to other South American countries within the Mercosur region... More










What's New in Payments

One in five in-person Visa card transactions in the US are now contactless

Alfred Keylly Visa CEO

Nearly 20% of all in-person Visa card transactions in the US are now contactless, with that proportion rising to more than 25% in Los Angeles, Detroit, Orange County, Miami and Salt Lake City, over 30% in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, and reaching 45% in New York, according to the card network’s Q1 2022 earnings call... More