Indian mobile wallet Paytm “expects to lose 20-30%” of customers making offline payments using QR codes, OTP or mobile-to-mobile transfers when the Reserve Bank of India removes cash withdrawal limits on March 13, The Financial Express reports... More
Cash
More than 150,000 Kenyan merchants to get mobile payments with Masterpass QR
More than 150,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya will be able to accept in-store mobile payments using QR code technology in 2017, using Mastercard’s Masterpass QR platform... More
India to ‘skip card era’ for mobile payments
Mobile and digital payments will overtake physical card payments as the predominant non-cash payment mode in India this year, Deloitte India predicts... More
Australia’s retailers join the banks in their battle with Apple Pay
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has come out in support of the group of four Australian banks seeking stronger negotiation powers with Apple over the introduction of Apple Pay in the country, saying they believe access to the NFC functionality in the iPhone would allow retailers to provide “a richer and more convenient customer experience”... More
Eight in 10 US consumers would prefer an Amazon Go automated store to traditional shopping
Some 84% of US consumers say they would enjoy shopping at an Amazon Go automated store more than a traditional grocery store, but a fifth think they would lose out on traditional shopping experiences by doing so, the results of a survey of 1,000 shoppers released by packaging solutions provider Shorr Packaging show... More
Young Brits adopting mobile wallets
Two thirds of 18- to 25-year-olds in the UK (64%) are using a mobile wallet, while only 14% have “no interest” in doing so, research released by social money transfer app Moneymailme reveals... More
Turkish bank offers ATM cash withdrawals with eye scans
Customers of Turkish bank Yapı Kredi can now log in to their mobile banking app and withdraw cash from ATMs with a scan of their eyes through an integration with EyeVerify’s Eyeprint ID platform... More
Contactless tins triple charity donations
The average size of donations made to a UK charity using contactless collection tins was more than three times larger than the average cash donation, The Telegraph reports... More
Indian government unveils sweeping proposals to reduce the use of cash
The Government of India has introduced a series of incentives designed to encourage consumers and businesses to adopt digital and mobile payments and significantly reduce the use of cash in the economy — including plans to encourage banks to introduce one million point-of-sale terminals by March 2017, rising to two million by September... More
Chinese to get cash using face recognition ATMs
Customers of China Merchants Bank will be able to withdraw cash using face recognition technology installed in all of the bank’s ATMs in Shanghai by the end of 2017, South China Morning Post reports... More
India to rank states on digital transactions
Niti Aayog, an Indian government policy think tank, is producing an index to rank Indian states based on the number of digital transactions made, according to Economic Times... More
One in 10 UK consumers have used mobile payments, survey reveals
More than one in 10 (11%) of UK consumers have made an in-store mobile payment and do so occasionally, with 2% doing so “wherever possible”, research from price comparison service uSwitch reveals... More
US bank to upgrade all ATMs for mobile withdrawals
US bank Wells Fargo expects to be the first bank to fully convert all its ATMs to support a mobile withdrawals service, allowing customers to get cash by entering an eight-digit code generated by the bank’s app plus their PIN into the machine, CNN Money reports... More
Hungary’s national bank to launch instant payments through mobile phone numbers
A proposal from Hungary’s central bank Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) for the launch of an instant payments service that will allow consumers to initiate a payment using only the mobile phone number of the recipient, with transactions completed “in a matter of seconds”, has been approved by the country’s Financial Stability Board... More
Samsung Pay prepares for India launch
Samsung Pay is testing its mobile payment service in India, and could be launched there in the first half of 2017, SamMobile reports... More
Indian merchants get new digital payments service
Vodafone India has unveiled Vodafone M-Pesa Pay, a digital payment solution allowing merchants to receive payments from customers using their M-Pesa wallet, bank account, or debit or credit card... More
Pakistan bank offers mobile ATM cash withdrawals
Customers of Pakistan’s Askari Bank can now withdraw cash from ATMs using their mobile phone... More
Barclays pilots cash withdrawals using NFC mobile phones and contactless cards
UK bank Barclays has begun piloting a contactless mobile cash service that will enable customers to withdraw cash with a tap of their NFC mobile phones or contactless debit card... More
Australian bank branches stop dealing with cash
Six retail branches of Citi bank in Australia are to stop dealing with cash because of falling demand from customers who prefer to manage their money digitally, the Sydney Morning Herald reports... More
Indian mobile wallet ‘ready for 300m users’
Indian mobile wallet provider MobiKwik says it is ready to serve 300m users, up from its current 35m customer base, in the wake of the government’s withdrawal of Rs 500 (US$7) and Rs 1,000 ($14) notes from circulation... More