Transport for Wales (TfW) has issued a tender inviting suppliers to propose and develop a national Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) app that will enable door-to-door journey planning and payments for bus, rail, coach and taxi fares as well as for bicycle and e-scooter hire, car sharing and demand-responsive transport schemes... More
United Kingdom
Bank of England and UK Treasury launch consultation on digital pound
The Bank of England and UK Treasury have launched a consultation on the design of the proposed digital pound and could roll out the central bank digital currency (CBDC) during the second half of the decade, according to bank and government officials... More
Nationwide reports first increase in cash withdrawals from ATMs in the UK for 13 years
The total number of cash withdrawals made from Nationwide Building Society ATMs across the UK increased by 19% from 25.45m in 2021 to 30.21m in 2022, the first such increase in 13 years, the society reports... More
Half of UK consumers think digital payments are making physical wallets irrelevant
Just over half of UK consumers believe that the growing popularity of digital payments is making physical wallets irrelevant (51%) and one in five say they do not expect to carry a wallet or purse within five years (21%), a figure that rises to 38% among millennials, according to a Mastercard survey... More
Seven in ten pay-as-you-go bus fare payments in London are now contactless
Some 1.7m fare payments for journeys on London buses are now made using a contactless payment card or mobile device every day, about 70% of all payments for pay-as-you-go bus fares in the UK capital, up from 33,000 a day in 2013 and 900,000 a day in 2017, Transport for London (TfL) reports... More
Bank of England to trial proof of concept CBDC wallet
The Bank of England has issued a tender inviting suppliers to design and produce a proof of concept central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet, sample user and merchant websites and a back-end server that can be implemented as a prototype for future user testing of a digital pound in the UK... More
Dejamobile adds support for tips to its ReadyToTap Payment for Merchants SoftPOS solution
PARTNER NEWS: Dejamobile has added support for tips to its white-label SoftPOS solution, making it possible for merchant service providers, acquirers and payments facilitators to provide restaurants, hairdressers and other merchants with the ability to accept contactless payments that include a gratuity on a standard Android NFC phone... More
Starling Bank adds virtual debit cards that let customers make NFC payments from dedicated savings spaces
Customers of Starling Bank in the UK can now set up dedicated ‘Saving Spaces’ for up to five different kinds of expenditure and then create a virtual card for each one that they can use to make payments online and in stores directly from the funds they’ve specially set aside... More
British Airways trials contactless biometric boarding at London’s Heathrow Airport
Passengers on British Airways (BA) flights from London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to Malaga in Spain will be the first to trial a contactless biometric check-in and boarding system that will enable them to travel through the airport and board an international flight without needing to show their passport... More
Transport for London sets out plans for next generation transport ticketing solution
Transport for London (TfL) is planning to integrate its Oyster closed-loop transit card into an account-based ticketing system for contactless fare payments as part of a network-wide scheme to upgrade its revenue collection system, according to a call for competition issued by the transit agency’s trading arm, Transport Trading Ltd... More
Translink begins rolling out interoperable fare-capped contactless ticketing across Northern Ireland
Passengers travelling on Translink’s Metro bus services in Belfast are the first in Northern Ireland to be able to pay a flat fare for their journeys with a tap of their contactless bank card and benefit from daily fare-capping using the public transport operator’s contactless account-based ticketing system... More
Tesco introduces hybrid stores that combine contactless shopping with traditional checkouts
UK supermarket chain Tesco is to open three hybrid stores that give customers the option of choosing a checkout-free, automated shopping experience, an unattended self-checkout station or a conventional, manned checkout... More
Samsung Wallet to expand to 13 more countries
Samsung Wallet is to roll out in Bahrain, Denmark, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, enabling users to store their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
One in three UK consumers would ditch their wallet ‘if it weren’t for having to carry physical ID’
Nearly one third of UK consumers believe that carrying a physical ID document is “outdated” (32%) and nearly half would prefer not to have to carry a physical document as proof of identity (45%), a survey commissioned by the UK Post Office has found... More
UK updates Highway Code to allow drivers to make mobile payments from their vehicle
The UK government has published an updated version of The Highway Code governing the use of public roads that incorporates a clause permitting drivers to make a contactless payment at a contactless payment terminal from their vehicle using their mobile device... More
Payment card shipments to exceed 3bn in 2022 despite global chip shortage
Global payment card shipments will total 3.029bn in 2022, falling slightly from the total of 3.11bn cards shipped during 2021 because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing disruption to the global chip supply, according to a forecast by ABI Research... More
BP and MAN to pilot in-vehicle contactless payments for truck drivers
Petrol retailer BP and truck and bus manufacturer MAN are teaming up to pilot in-vehicle contactless payments at fuel stations across the UK... More
Visa reports rapid growth in contactless fare payments worldwide
Visa has processed more than 1bn contactless fare payments on transit systems around the world over a period of 10 months, signalling “rapid growth” in the uptake of digital payment options, the card network reports... More
Nearly half of UK consumers now make mobile payments every week
More than four in ten UK consumers now make in-person and ecommerce purchases from their mobile device on a weekly basis (43%), making mobile payments “the predominant form of payment” in the country with mobile commerce transaction values predicted to reach £100m (US$112m) by 2024, according to research published by payment services provider Rapyd... More
Apple integrates transit cards with Maps in iOS 16
Apple iPhone users can now check public transport fares and add transit cards to Wallet as well as check and replenish an existing card balance directly from Maps... More