Google Pay is now available in the United Arab Emirates — 9to5Google — “While not officially announced, the United Arab Emirates was added to various Google Pay support pages today, indicating its imminent availability… It is only available through a handful of banks for now… EIB, ENBD, Mashreq, Standard Chartered.”
7-Eleven pilots mobile self-checkout in 14 US stores
Convenience store giant 7-Eleven is piloting a mobile self-checkout service in 14 stores in the Dallas area, just two months after it began accepting contactless and mobile payments across its 8,000+ US stores... More
Google Pay rolls out across Scandinavia
Google Pay is now live in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, with support from Jyske Bank, Nordea and Revolut in Denmark, Nordea, Revolut, Monobank, Storebrand Bank and Sparebanken Sør in Norway, Nordea, Revolut, Länsförsäkringar Bank and Sodexo in Sweden and Nordea, Revolut and Edenred in Finland... More
Report: Apple Pay to launch in Belgium ‘in November’
Apple Pay will go live in Belgium this month, local news service De Tijd reports, eighteen months after Google Pay launched in the country... More
Google includes custom security chip in Pixel 3 smartphones
Google’s latest Pixel 3 smartphones include a new “enterprise-grade” security chip that provides a range of features designed to increase the security of applications that make use of sensitive data, Google has revealed... More
Contactless payments overtake chip and pin in the UK
Contactless payments usage has grown 30% in the UK over the past year to become the most popular card payment type for in-store transactions, Worldpay reports — and the growth is partly driven by an “astonishing” rise in consumer adoption of mobile payment services... More
Google includes support for FeliCa NFC payments in Pixel 3 smartphones
Google has extended the NFC capabilities of its Pixel smartphones with the addition of support for ‘NFC-F’ FeliCa NFC mobile payments in Japanese versions of its new Pixel 3 smartphones... More
ANZ replaces its goMoney Wallet with Google Pay
ANZ launches Google Pay — ANZ Bank — “Google Pay replaces ANZ’s goMoney Wallet, ANZ’s current Android mobile wallet, which will be phased out from October this year… The move to Google Pay will provide customers with a faster and more reliable way to make contactless payments, particularly on older Android devices. It also allows ANZ to offer an Android mobile payment solution to more customers.”
Paytm to test face verification for payments in stores?
Paytm is testing face recognition tool for payments — Economic Times — “Paytm has begun testing a facial recognition tool that can unlock its payments application on a customer’s smartphone, company executives said. It also plans to extend this feature to allow customers to pay at merchant outlets with the blink of an eye… Paytm is testing the facial recognition feature on Google’s Android platform, and according to sources, will shortly roll it out through an app update. Offline payments through face recognition, however, would take longer, they said.”
Google Pay closes payments data sharing loophole
Google tweaks privacy policy for Indian payment app after rival complaint — Reuters — “Google has tweaked the privacy policy of its Indian digital payments mobile application, days after local rival Paytm complained that the US tech giant’s platform allowed disclosure of customer data for advertising and other purposes… Google Pay’s privacy policy had said it could ‘collect, store, use and/or disclose’ personal data and ‘any communications made through Google Pay’. A Reuters review of Google’s privacy policy that was updated on Thursday showed the company had dropped the word ‘disclose’ from its privacy clause.”
Google Pay goes live in Italy
Google Pay has arrived — Google Blog Italia (translation) — “Simply add a credit, debit or prepaid card (Maestro, MasterCard, Visa) issued by any of the supported banks and credit institutions to the Google Pay app — including Banca Mediolanum, Boon, Hype, Nexi, N26, Revolut, Widiba and, in the coming months, Iccrea Banca and Poste Italiane — to turn your Android smartphone into a wallet. Users can also activate the service directly in the mobile banking app of their bank.”
Bank of America brings mobile payments to business card customers
BofA Merrill introduces mobile wallets for business cardholders — Bank of America — “The millions of Bank of America Merrill Lynch cardholders who use our corporate, commercial and purchasing cards in the United States are now able to use Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay to make business purchases.”
Mobile contactless payment volumes to rise by 30% a year to 2022
451 Research’s Global Unified Commerce Forecast uncovers dramatic shifts in consumer spending patterns — 451 Research — “Mobile contactless payments will surpass $1 trillion globally in 2022. Sales executed via mobile contactless payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are growing at an impressive 30.7% CAGR through 2022. However, they will account for just 1.4% of global brick and mortar retail sales this year and reach only 3.8% by 2022.”
Singapore Airlines adds boarding passes to Google Pay
SIA introduces seamless access to mobile boarding passes via Google Pay — Singapore Airlines — “Customers travelling with Singapore Airlines (SIA) can now have the added flexibility of saving their mobile boarding pass on Google Pay, the digital wallet platform and online payment system developed by Google. This is the first time an airline in the Asia-Pacific region has such a capability on Google Pay.”
Mastercard comes under fire for sharing transaction data with Google
Google and Mastercard cut a secret ad deal to track retail sales — Bloomberg — “For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the US. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for… Google paid Mastercard millions of dollars for the data, according to two people who worked on the deal.”
Google rolls out Titan Security Keys with NFC
Titan Security Keys: Now available on the Google Store — Google — “In July, we announced Titan Security Keys, Fido security keys built with a hardware chip that includes firmware engineered by Google to verify the keys’ integrity. Starting today, Titan Security Keys are available for purchase on the Google Store… Security keys can be used to authenticate to Google as well as Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Salesforce, Stripe, Twitter, and other services that support Fido standards.”
Wear OS update lets smartwatch users make faster NFC payments
Google’s redesigned Wear OS might make smartwatches worth buying again — Mashable — “Previously, if you wanted to use Google Pay on your smartwatch, you’d need to launch the app, which was a multi-tap process. Now, you can make a payment much quicker. It’s not as quick as double-pressing the side button on the Apple Watch to fire up Apple Pay, but it’s way faster than the old way.”
Skagen includes NFC payments in Falster 2 smartwatch
Announcing Falster 2, Skagen’s next generation of touchscreen smartwatch — Skagen — “Falster 2 features integrated NFC technology, allowing users to make hands-free payments via Google Pay and access participating public transit systems using their device.”
Google adds bank loans to Google Pay in India
Google teams with HDFC Bank, ICICI, others for instant loans — Livemint — “Google Pay users will be able to access customised loans from HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd with minimal paperwork… Once users holding accounts with these banks accept the bank’s terms, the money will be transferred to their accounts.”
Google rebrands its Tez mobile wallet to Google Pay
Building services for every Indian, in their language — Google India — “Since launching our India-first payments app Tez last September, over 22 million people and businesses have used Tez to make over 750m transactions that are collectively worth over $30bn annually. We believe that many of the innovations and features we have pioneered with Tez will work in other countries. To take Tez beyond India, we will be unifying all of Google’s payment offerings globally. As a first step, Tez will now be called Google Pay.”