Samsung is to discontinue its Samsung Wallet service on 30 June 2015 as it gears up to roll out Samsung Pay later in the year... More
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Italian zoo visitors walk on the wilder side with iBeacon network
Visitors to Zoom Torino Biopark in Cumiana, Italy will be able to unlock information and rewards on their smartphones thanks to a network of Bluetooth Low Energy beacons that send location-based messages to their devices... More
Canadian carriers MTS and SaskTel launch NFC payments with TD Bank
MTS and SaskTel have become the latest Canadian mobile network operators to launch NFC mobile payment services using EnStream, the joint venture between Bell Mobility, Telus and Rogers Communications put in place to act as a single connection point between the country’s card issuers and carriers... More
Orange Cash adds in-store mobile payments in Spain
Orange Spain is to launch a new version of its Orange Cash service allowing users to pay with their smartphone at Visa contactless point-of-sale terminals and make online payments using one-time generated virtual cards... More
Nepal Bank to launch NFC and tokenization in July
Nepal Bank is set to become the first in the country to launch an NFC mobile payment service, using a solution provided by Nuspay that also makes use of tokenization... More
First Internet offers Touch ID login
Customers using US-based First Internet Bank’s personal mobile banking application are now able to log in using their fingerprint and Apple’s Touch ID feature... More
Saracens fans get contactless payment wristbands
Supporters of Saracens rugby union club have been given prepaid contactless wristbands that let them pay for food and drink with a tap at the club’s Allianz Park stadium in north London, as well make payments outside the venue and travel on the city’s public transport network... More
Barclaycard’s bPay band set for relaunch
Barclaycard is to shut down its first generation bPay prepaid contactless wristband at the end of the month and will launch “a newly designed wristband that’s lighter, slimmer and comes in a choice of colours… in a couple of months”... More
NFC gets top marks for helping Barcelona kids get to school
Six schools in Barcelona are issuing contactless cards to students who use public transport so that parents can track them on their journey to school and be notified when their child has arrived safely... More
84% of banks and retailers plan to invest in mobile payment technology
The “overwhelming majority” of financial institutions and retailers are currently investing or planning to invest in new payment technologies within the next 18 to 24 months, with online (86%) and mobile payment technologies (84%) topping the list, a survey by payments provider ACI and IT consultants Ovum has found... More
Digital Insights adds Touch ID to banking apps
Digital banking solutions provider Digital Insight is to offer Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint verification in the iOS mobile banking applications it supplies to financial institutions later this year... More
Yandex offers mobile payments at 1,300 Ukraine fuel stations
Ukrainian drivers can now pay for fuel at more than 1,300 outlets across the country using a mobile payment service launched by Russian internet company Yandex, in partnership with PrivatBank and MasterCard... More
Starwood guests unlock hotel rooms with Apple Watch app
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has launched an app for the Apple Watch that enables wearers to tap their device to unlock hotel room doors via Bluetooth... More
MCX member Best Buy to accept Apple Pay across the US
US retail giant Best Buy, a founder member of retailer-led consortium MCX which requires members to exclusively support its own yet-to-launch mobile payments service, has announced that it will accept Apple Pay NFC payments in its stores “later this year”... More
Starbucks processes 8m mobile payments every week
Coffee chain Starbucks has 16 million active users of its mobile app who are making eight million mobile payments a week, equalling nearly 19% of all transactions in US stores, president and COO Kevin Johnson has revealed, and the company is preparing to roll out its successful Mobile Order and Pay service across the US, UK and Canada before the end of 2015... More
Forecast: 100m Apple Pay-capable phones in US by 2020
Some 100m Apple Pay-capable smartphones will be available in the US in 2020, up from 53m this year, according to Mercator Advisory Group... More
Vodafone Netherlands adds credit card to Wallet
Vodafone customers in the Netherlands can now make NFC payments with a mobile version of a credit card... More
Pub chain picks Droplet’s fee-free mobile payments and rewards
British brewer Adnams is to roll out a mobile payments and rewards service in its 12 stores and 50 pubs across East Anglia and London this summer using a fee-free platform provided by UK startup Droplet. More
Jawbone adds NFC payments to fitness trackers with AmEx
Wearable device maker Jawbone has unveiled a fitness tracking wristband that can be linked to the wearer’s American Express card account and used to make NFC payments... More
Europeans back banks for mobile payments
Some 185m Europeans will use a mobile payment app this year, up 51% on 2014, a survey of 14,000 consumers for ING has revealed, and respondents say they are far more likely to use apps associated with their bank for mobile payments (59%) over ‘named groups’ such as Apple or Google (39%)... More