Debit cards overtake cash to become number one payment method in the UK — British Retail Consortium — “For the first time the volume of retail purchases made by card now accounts for more than half of all customer transactions, according to the BRC’s latest annual Payments Survey, released today. This has partly been driven by UK customers increasingly using cards for lower value payments.”
United Kingdom
More than 30m journeys made using NFC mobile phones across London in the last 12 months
More than 31m journeys have been made using NFC mobile phones across Transport for London’s (TfL) network in the last 12 months, the transport operator has revealed... More
Open Banking launches account information and payment initiation API specifications
Open Banking launches account information and payment initiation API specifications — Open Banking — “The payments initiation API will enable third parties to set up secure payments on behalf of customers and, once authorised by the customer, submit the payment for processing. The specification currently caters for the submission of a single, immediate, domestic payment from UK personal and business current accounts and is payment scheme agnostic.”
Tesco brings mobile and contactless rewards to millions of UK supermarket shoppers
UK-based supermarket giant Tesco has launched a contactless version of its Clubcard reward scheme that lets customers “simply tap at the checkout to add their points”... More
Edinburgh Tattoo to accept WeChat Pay
Traditional annual Scottish tourism highlight The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is to get a very modern twist from 2018 with the addition of support for Chinese internet giant Tencent’s WeChat Pay mobile payments platform, enabling the growing number of visitors from China who attend the event to purchase tickets, merchandise and other services from their smartphones. More
Survey finds consumers view contactless shopping as both ‘cool’ and ‘creepy’
A survey of consumer attitudes to emerging technologies has found that the majority of both US and European consumers now believe that using fingerprint scanning to pay for purchases is ‘cool’ — but UK and European consumers are divided on the idea of contactless shopping services like Amazon Go, with 40% considering the technology to be ‘cool’ and 31% seeing it as ‘creepy’... More
English churches to trial contactless donations this summer ahead of wider roll out
Churchgoers in England will begin trialling contactless donations in 40 churches across the country this summer, as the Church of England announces plans to roll out contactless handheld terminals to process card payments for donations as a replacement for loose change... More
‘Connected finance’ app Curve hits £50m spend ahead of UK launch
‘Connected finance’ app Curve hits £50m spend ahead of UK launch — Curve — “London fintech startup Curve has passed 50,000 sign-ups and £50m spend in beta mode… Driven by demand and ‘exceptionally high’ satisfaction among beta users, Curve will now launch for consumers later this year.”
Danske Bank brings Apple Pay to customers in Northern Ireland
Danske Bank brings Apple Pay to customers in Northern Ireland — Danske Bank — “Richard Caldwell, managing director of personal banking and small business at Danske Bank, reflected: ‘There has been a clear demand from customers for us to integrate Apple Pay, and I am delighted that we are now offering it. It is a great addition to our already strong online offering and will further improve customer experience.'”
East London gets local currency built on the blockchain
Residents across East London can now make mobile payments at small businesses with a local currency launched by Tel-Aviv-based digital wallet provider Colu which makes use of blockchain technology... More
Mobile payments for online purchases set to rise across the UK
Nearly six in 10 (58.6%) UK digital buyers aged 14 and over will make retail ecommerce purchases using their smartphone this year, research released by eMarketer predicts, with retail ecommerce sales through smartphones set to reach £16.42bn (US$22.16bn) in 2017... More
Samsung Pay now supports HSBC and M&S Bank cards in the UK
Samsung Pay now supports HSBC and M&S Bank cards in the UK — Engadget — “It was only available to customers who bank with MBNA, Nationwide and Santander. Today, it’s playing catch-up with support for HSBC, First Direct and M&S Bank cardholders. While welcome, the app is still missing some of the big British money-lenders including Lloyds Bank and Barclays.”
Contactless now the favoured way to pay for British shoppers as spending leaps 34 per cent since the start of 2017
Contactless now the favoured way to pay for British shoppers as spending leaps 34 per cent since the start of 2017 — Barclaycard — “More than half (51%) of all transactions up to the eligible spending limit of £30 are now made using contactless… The amount spent by users of Barclaycard’s Android Contactless Mobile app has jumped by 90% in 2017.”
Insights into the future of cash
Insights into the future of cash — Bank of England — “The value of Bank of England notes in circulation peaked in the run-up to Christmas 2016, reaching over £70bn for the first time — an increase of 10% on a year earlier. This is the fastest growth we’ve seen in a decade, and a giant leap compared to the £2.9bn when the ATM was born.”
Mobile biometrics in financial services: A five factor framework
Mobile biometrics in financial services: A five factor framework — University of Oxford — “Overall, users believe that biometric authentication is more secure (83%) and more convenient (92%) than passwords. Fingerprint recognition obtained marginally better results compared to face recognition, for both security and convenience.”
Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel passengers can now ‘wave and pay’
Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel passengers can now ‘wave and pay’ — Oxford Times — “This would do more than ‘just replace the existing cash ticket’, managing director Phil Southall said… ‘We’re really proud to be able to offer the ability for customers to pay for their tickets using Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Android Pay on all of our services from today. We have ambitious plans over the coming months.'”
Android Pay goes live in Taiwan with CTBC and First Bank
Android Pay has launched in Taiwan, taking the mobile payment service to a total of 13 markets following its debut in Canada earlier this week... More
Android Pay begins its rollout across Canada
Android Pay has begun rolling out across Canada with support for eligible Visa and Mastercard credit cards from BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Banque Nationale, Scotiabank, Desjardins, President’s Choice Financial, ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services as well as prepaid Scotiabank and Desjardins cards... More
Barclaycard trials shopping app that lets customers use their smartphone as ‘pocket checkout’
Employees at UK bank Barclays and Barclaycard’s London office have begun piloting a new payment concept that allows them to buy low-value goods in the staff restaurant by scanning the barcode on the items using their smartphone and completing the purchase “with a single click” without needing to visit the physical checkout. More
Travel for free on the tube using a Lucozade bottle
Travel for free on the tube using a Lucozade bottle — Silicon — “Free Lucozade bottles with a contactless chip at the base will be handed out at Oxford Circus station and can be used to pay for a single journey on London’s subterranean railway network. Passengers simply tap the bottle at the gates as if they were using a normal card.”