Travellers in Singapore can now use their contactless Mastercard debit or credit card as a travel ticket on trains and buses while also improving the user experience through travel information sent directly to a smartphone app... More
Apple will expand the iPhone’s NFC chip reading capabilities before the end of 2019 so that it can be used to read data stored in security chips like those used in passports, according to comments made by the UK government... More
Specialist sock retailer Stance is enabling customers to pay for products on their mobile phones from anywhere in its stores — without them having to visit a physical checkout desk, talk with a shop assistant or download an app... More
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has become the fifth university in the US to enable its students to load their campus card onto their iPhone or Apple Watch... More
Although the physical version of Apple’s new credit card does not include support for contactless transactions, cardholders will be able to activate it by simply placing it in close proximity to their iPhone, code in the latest iOS beta release suggests... More
iPhone users want the Apple Card — here’s why its appeal could propel Apple Pay — Business Insider — “42% of iPhone users are ‘extremely interested’ in applying for Apple Card… Nearly 8 in 10 customers would be more likely to pay with their phones if they had Apple Card.”
Apple Pay is coming soon to Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Greece, and Romania — MacRumors — “Mobile banking service N26 today on its Twitter account announced that Apple Pay will soon be available in Estonia, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia, one day after revealing that Apple Pay is coming soon to Austria. Likewise, ING Bank has announced that Apple Pay is coming soon to Romania… Slovakian bank Slovenská Sporiteľňa confirmed that it will start supporting Apple Pay later this year.”
Apple Pay is on track to be available in more than 40 countries this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed during the launch of the company’s new Apple Card this week... More
Apple Pay is coming soon to Austria — MacRumors — “Austria’s largest bank Erste Bank und Sparkasse today announced that Apple Pay is ‘coming soon’ with a teaser on its Twitter account… German-based mobile bank N26 also announced today that Apple Pay is coming soon to customers in Austria.”
Apple has launched a credit card to link with Apple Pay... More
Apple is expanding its support for transit systems, enabling travellers in the US to use Apple Pay as a replacement for travel tickets... More
Visa partners with Starbucks & Hardee’s to help promote the use of Apple Pay in KSA and UAE — MenaFN — “The promotion with Starbucks will allow Visa cardholders to upgrade the size of their latte, cappuccino or americano beverages if they pay through Apple Pay… The Hardee’s promotion will allow Visa cardholders to receive a free dessert when they buy any large meal of their choice using Visa with Apple Pay.”
Digital wallet payments surge on Apple Pay: CBA — The Sydney Morning Herald — “‘Since we’ve introduced Apple Pay, we’ve seen the number of wallet transactions that are linked to a card increase 2.7 times. So it’s really increased quite dramatically since we’ve introduced Apple Pay for our consumer customers,’ said Sam Itzcovitz, CBA’s general manager of commerce solutions, business customer solutions.”
Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken want to support Apple Pay in 2019 — Heise Online (translation) — “Like the savings banks, the Volksbanks offer their customers their own app for contactless payment transactions in the retail sector. However, it is only available for Android because Apple has not released the NFC interface of the iPhone for such applications. The German savings banks had demanded that Apple should open its NFC functionality to banking apps as recently as the end of 2018, but have now dropped this requirement.”
Apple is to charge participating banks a 0.2% transaction fee when its Apple Pay service launches in Slovakia later this year, according to local newspaper Hospodárske Noviny... More
The NFC Forum has released a new candidate specification that makes it easy for mobile payments services based on QR codes to add NFC functionality, giving “payment service providers and consumers the opportunity to take advantage of the simple and secure NFC-based payment solutions already in use worldwide.”... More
W3C approves WebAuthn as the web standard for password-free logins — VentureBeat — “The specification lets users log into online accounts using biometrics, mobile devices, and/or Fido security keys. WebAuthn is supported by Android and Windows 10. On the browser side, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge all added support last year. Apple has supported WebAuthn in preview versions of Safari since December.”
Apple, Goldman Sachs team up on credit card paired with iPhone — The Wall Street Journal — “The card will be rolled out to employees for testing in the next few weeks and officially launch later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies hope to lure cardholders by offering them extra features on Apple’s Wallet app, which will let them set spending goals, track their rewards and manage their balances, the people said.”
Apple Pay adoption continues to climb — Loup Ventures — “We estimate, based on our survey work as well as the growth in transactions, countries, locations, and banks, that 43% of global iPhone users have enabled Apple Pay. This is up from 36% in Sep-18 and 20% in Dec-17. That implies there are currently 383m Apple Pay users, up 21% sequentially and 135% y/y… We estimate that 24% of US iPhone users have used Apple Pay vs 47% of international users.”
Apple Pay rolling out in Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia — MacRumors — “In Czech Republic, users have so far reported successfully adding cards to their mobile wallets from Air Bank, Moneta Money Bank, Ceska Sporitelna, and payments company Twisto. .. In Saudi Arabia, Apple’s regional Apple Pay website has gone live and lists Visa and Mastercard support for Al Rajhi Bank, NCB, Mada, Riyad Bank, Alinma Bank, and Bank Aljazira.”