Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has added support for host card emulation (HCE) to its RBC mobile app, “allowing Canadians to pay with most Android mobile phones without worrying about being on the right mobile network or having the right SIM card.”... More
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Credit unions to adopt Apple Pay
A number of US credit unions are actively working towards adopting Apple Pay NFC payments, credit union technology provider Co-op Financial Services has revealed... More
High value contactless payments arrive in the UK
A new service that lets NFC phone users enter their PIN on their mobile device to confirm a high value transaction is making it possible for UK consumers to make contactless payments valued at more than the current £20 (US$32) transaction limit for the first time... More
Ugo launches open NFC payments and rewards wallet in Canada
Ugo, an open NFC mobile wallet developed by Canadian banks President’s Choice Financial and TD Bank Group, is now available to customers of all three major Canadian carriers who own one of a range of supported BlackBerry 10 and Android NFC devices... More
65% of Canadians plan to make mobile payments
Almost seven in ten Canadian smartphone owners (68%) are aware of NFC or QR codes and 65% are likely to make NFC or QR payments over the next six months, research by Visa Canada has revealed... More
Dongle-free mPOS on its way
Oberthur Technologies (OT) has teamed up with NFC mPOS services provider Mobeewave for Flying mPOS, a solution that will enable NFC devices equipped with Oberthur’s Pearl embedded secure element to be used as a mobile POS terminal — without the need for a separate dongle or other add-on... More
Optus launches NFC payments in Australia
Australian carrier Optus has teamed up with Visa and Heritage Bank to launch an NFC mobile payment service that lets customers load up to A$500 into a prepaid account and then make payments at any Visa contactless POS terminal... More
Visa CEO: We may not charge a fee for tokenization
Visa will not charge a fee to card issuers making use of its tokenization service until at least the end of 2015 and may or may not charge a separate fee for the service in the future, CEO Charles Scharf has revealed at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Banking & Financial Services Conference... More
MasterCard and Visa to create new security standard to replace passwords for online payments
MasterCard is working with Visa to create a new authentication standard for online payments that will gradually replace the 3D Secure protocol with “invisible authentication”, far fewer prompts for passwords and support for a range of biometric technologies... More
Kili acquires NFC microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity
NFC-on-microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity has been acquired by Kili Technology, a payments processing solution provider which launched an mPOS “solution-on-a-chip” range last month... More
SimplyTapp raises US$6m to grow HCE
PARTNER NEWS: Host card emulation (HCE) specialist SimplyTapp has closed a US$6m Series B funding round... More
EMV hits nearly 30% of global card-present transactions
Almost 30% of all card-present transactions conducted globally between July 2013 and June 2014 used the EMV chip card standard, EMVCo has revealed, with the highest usage in Western Europe and the lowest in the United States... More
Apple Pay contract leaked
The full 19-page contract that banks wishing to offer Apple Pay to their cardholders must sign in order to take part has been leaked to Digital Transactions... More
Valyou goes live across Norway
The NFC mobile wallet solution developed by mobile network operator Telenor and banking group DNB has launched nationwide across Norway... More
Visa CEO identifies mobile payment as major growth driver
Mobile payments will be a “great driver” for Visa, CEO Charles Scharf has told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings call, and Apple Pay is just the beginning... More
A million consumers sign up for Apple Pay in first 72 hours
Apple Pay saw more than one million card activations within 72 hours of launch and is already the leading NFC payments player in the US, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed during the Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive event. Cook also outlined future growth plans for the service, including a potential partnership with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba. More
Amazon Rewards to join Apple Pay
Amazon has confirmed to TechCrunch that its Rewards Visa Card, powered by Chase, is to support Apple Pay in the future and the company is already working on making this happen... More
JPMorgan Chase CEO outlines mobile wallet strategy
JPMorgan Chase plans to make its debit and credit cards available in a wide array of mobile wallets — including one of its own to be launched later this year — even if that means cutting current margins, CEO Jamie Dimon has told analysts during the bank’s third quarter earnings call. More
Visa details Apple Pay setup process
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users with Visa cards issued by Bank of America, Capital One, Citi Bank, Chase and Wells Fargo Bank will be able to use Apple Pay in stores from launch on 20 October, Visa says. More
RBC expands cloud-based NFC wallet to BlackBerry and Virgin
Royal Bank of Canada’s cloud-based NFC wallet is now available to Virgin Mobile subscribers and to customers with a BlackBerry Z10 or Z30 mobile phone, the bank has announced... More