Consumers in Italy used their smartphones or wearable devices to make in-store contactless payments worth a total of €16.3bn (US$17.5bn) in 2022, an increase of 122% compared with 2021, according to the Innovative Payments Observatory (IPO) at Milan Polytechnic University... More
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CBDC transactions to top US$213bn worldwide by 2030
The total annual value of transactions made using central bank digital currencies (CBDC) will exceed US$213bn by 2030, up from US$100m in 2023, according to a Juniper Research forecast... More
US Department of Agriculture to put state benefits on mobile phones in five states
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to enable citizens entitled to financial support under its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri and Oklahoma to receive benefits and make NFC or QR code payments for eligible purchases on their mobile device... More
Central bank enables rollout of contactless mobile payments in Egypt
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has issued regulations governing payment card tokenization on mobile apps that enable banks and payment service providers to allow customers to make contactless payments with digital cards stored in mobile wallets including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay... More
Visa reports on passenger preferences for transit payments
More than four in ten transit passengers worldwide say that tapping their own debit or credit card to make open loop contactless fare payments is their preferred fare payment option (42%), followed by tapping a card stored in their mobile wallet (39%), using a closed loop transit card (38%), cash (31%) and app-based payment (29%), according to a Visa survey... More
Japanese consortium to build ‘metaverse economic zone’ where avatars can authorise digital payments
A consortium of Japan-based financial services and technology providers is to develop a ‘metaverse economic zone’ where consumers will be able to create a digital twin or ‘auto learning avatar’, access digital experiences and authorise payments to merchants and service providers with a digital authentication credential or ‘multi magic passport’ (MMP)... More
Mercedes lets drivers in Germany authenticate in-car payments with their fingerprint
Mercedes drivers in Germany can now authorise in-car payments for digital services and on-demand hardware upgrades using a fingerprint sensor on their vehicle’s dashboard without needing to enter a PIN or use an additional mobile device to verify a transaction... More
UK reveals proposals for national digital identity verification framework
The UK government has laid out proposals for establishing a framework for the use of trusted and secure digital verification services that will allow consumers to create certified digital identities for use across a range of use cases... More
Cilab adds shmoo plot feature that lets engineers visualize an NFC terminal’s RF field in just ten minutes
PARTNER NEWS: NFC testing innovator Cilab has added a feature to its high speed tester that enables NFC terminal manufacturers to quickly and easily test a device’s RF field by making it visible in the form of a shmoo plot, 3D plot and intensity chart... More
ANZ to run central bank digital currency pilot at Australian universities
The Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) is to pilot the use of a prototype central bank digital currency (CBDC) for offline transactions using pre-loaded contactless cards at RMIT University in the Australian city of Melbourne and Southern Cross University in New South Wales... More
Utah lets drivers create a mobile driving licence on their smartphone with a selfie
Drivers in the US state of Utah can now opt to create and store a digital version of their driving licence on their Apple or Android smartphone by scanning their physical document and verifying their identity with a selfie using biometric facial recognition technology... More
Mahajati picks Ixkio to authenticate artworks with NFC
EXHIBITOR NEWS: Singapore-based Islamic wood-carving specialist Mahajati has selected ixkio’s NFC tag management platform to enable purchasers of its unique artworks to verify the authenticity of the product and provide proof of ownership by scanning an NFC authentication tag with their smartphone... More
Google Wallet goes live in Costa Rica
Google Wallet has launched in Costa Rica, enabling users to store and use their credit and debit cards, boarding passes, tickets and other digital credentials on their Android NFC smartphone, Wear OS smartwatch or Fitbit device... More
Bank of Canada reports on offline central bank digital currency design options
Developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) system that supports offline transactions on smartphones or standalone custom devices will offer users benefits including enhanced resilience, accessibility, inclusivity and privacy, especially in remote areas without a reliable or affordable internet connection, according to the Bank of Canada... More
European Central Bank sets out timeline for digital euro rollout
The European Central Bank (ECB) has laid out plans for a staggered rollout of a digital euro that would begin with the bank initially releasing the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use in person-to-person and ecommerce transactions... More
Apple patents biometric palm recognition technology for smartphones and wearables
The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for an “electronic device including palm biometric sensor layer” that would enable users to unlock a device and authenticate other interactions on a smartphone, smartwatch or other wearable by verifying their identity with their palm... More
Nine in ten businesses to increase spending on digital identity verification
Nine in ten businesses across the finance, technology, telecoms and aviation sectors worldwide (91%) plan to increase their spending on identity verification (IDV) technology in the next one to three years, with one in three intending to increase their IDV budget by 20% over that period, an international business survey has found... More
Aegean Airlines speeds up boarding with government digital ID
Passengers travelling on domestic flights operated by Aegean Airlines and its subsidiary Olympic Air in Greece can now verify their identity when boarding using government-issued digital ID credentials stored on their Apple or Android smartphone rather than a physical ID card or passport... More
Tampa Bay transit authorities roll out open loop contactless ticketing with fare capping
Passengers travelling on bus and trolleybus services across the Tampa Bay region of Florida in the US can now make contactless fare payments using their physical contactless credit, debit or prepaid card or via Apple Pay or Google Pay on their NFC smartphone or wearable... More
Air Canada leverages NFC for contactless biometric boarding at Vancouver International Airport
Passengers travelling on select Air Canada flights between Vancouver and Winnipeg international airports can now opt to create a biometric digital ID on their NFC smartphone that they can then use to verify their identity with their face when travelling through the airports... More