What's New in Payments

RBR reports 10% growth in global payment card market

Continued growth in China cements UnionPay as the world’s largest card scheme — RBR — “There were 16bn payment cards in circulation at the end of 2018, up by 10% since a year earlier… The largest scheme worldwide is UnionPay, which accounted for 45% of cards in circulation at the end of 2018… Visa (including Visa, Visa Electron, V Pay and Interlink) made up 20% of the world’s cards… Mastercard (Mastercard, Maestro and Mastercard Electronic) accounts for 16% of all cards.” 


What's New in Payments

Starling Bank lets customers use a single debit card to pay in multiple currencies

Starling Bank launches euro debit card so business and personal customers can spend in two currencies with one card — Starling Bank — “To start using the new Euro Card feature, Starling account holders, both business and personal, must open a euro account… Once it’s open, they can transfer money from their business account to their euro account with a single tap in the app… Their existing debit card can [then] be switched on (in-app) to operate in either pounds or euros, depending on the currency of the transaction.” 


Transit Ticketing Today

Delhi Metro explores biometric transit cards for concessionary fares

Delhi Metro to introduce biometric-based ticketing to offer concessions to students and senior citizens — Techradar — “Delhi Metro is looking to be the first metro line in India to link biometrics to smart cards, in a bid to offer concessions to riders… Once the new biometric-based ticketing system is installed, the smart card will be linked to an individual users’ credentials, and the card will no longer be transferable.” 


Google explains the benefits of its Biometric API

One Biometric API over all Android — Google — “In addition to supporting multiple biometric authentication form factors, the API has made it much easier for developers to check whether a given device has biometric sensors… In addition, the framework has built-in support for facial authentication in Android 10 so that vendors don’t need to create a custom implementation.” 



Transit Ticketing Today

STIB tests contactless bank cards on Brussels Metro

STIB testing use of bank card as metro ticket at entrance gates — The Brussels Times — “STIB is testing a new system of contactless payment at metro station Parc/Park to allow travellers to directly scan their bank card, instead of a ticket, at the gates. If everything goes well, all other metro stops, as well as the electric buses on bus line 33, will be fitted out with the contactless system over the next few months.” 


What's New in Payments

Chinese supermarket to launch face recognition payments in Canada

Pay with your face system coming to Canada, but not everyone is on board — Yahoo Finance — “Ryan Li, Foodymart’s executive manager, sees the technology as an opportunity to grow his company’s business by attracting new customers, as well as cutting down on checkout times. Li also said between 50% and 60% of Foodymart customers have lived in China, and he expects most of them have previously interacted with a facial recognition payment system.”