Samsung Wallet has gone live in Qatar and South Africa, enabling users to store and use their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Google Wallet has gone live in Malaysia, enabling users to store and use their credit and debit cards, boarding passes, tickets and other digital credentials on their Android NFC smartphone or Wear OS smartwatch... More
Residents of South Korea can now create, store and use a digital version of their national identity card on their mobile device using the Pass verification app that they can then use to prove their age when purchasing age-restricted goods and to verify their identity when signing contracts and other legal documents... More
Some 30 banks and payment services providers in Spain, including BBVA, Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, ING, Deutsche Bank and Iberpay, have set up a working group to test the use of a digital euro for contactless in-store payments as well as ecommerce transactions and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers... More
The Bank of Korea (BOK) is to review additional central bank digital currency (CBDC) design options after its 10-month experiment to test a retail CBDC based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) revealed “limitations of scalability” such as slow processing times during periods of high transaction volume when compared with a more conventional centralised ledger database, the bank says... More
NFCW has introduced new benefits and pricing for contactless technology and solutions providers looking to boost their visibility and connect with potential new customers in 2023... More
Colorado has become the third US state to add support for Apple digital IDs, enabling residents with an iPhone or Apple Watch to create and store digital versions of their driving licence or state ID documents in Wallet and use them to verify their identity by tapping their device at selected Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoints... More
Denmark’s state railway operator Danske Statsbaner (DSB) has begun rolling out a software-only point-of-sale (sPOS) solution that enables rail staff to accept contactless fare payments on a standard Android NFC smartphone without needing any additional hardware or accessories... More
Residents of six Brazilian states and the country’s Federal District can now generate a digital national identity card that they can store on their Apple or Android smartphone and use to verify their ID for multiple uses including accessing public services and contactless cross-border travel to other South American countries within the Mercosur region... More
The European Union is preparing to go live with its European Digital Identity Wallet in 2024, enabling all EU citizens to store digital identity credentials including their national ID, driving licence, and qualification and bank account details, according to EU sources... More
Passengers travelling on Translink’s Metro bus services in Belfast are the first in Northern Ireland to be able to pay a flat fare for their journeys with a tap of their contactless bank card and benefit from daily fare-capping using the public transport operator’s contactless account-based ticketing system... More
Qatar Central Bank is to launch a national contactless prepaid debit card that will enable both banked and unbanked citizens to make contactless payments at the point of sale, withdraw cash from ATMs and make online purchases... More
Three in four airline passengers worldwide want to use biometric data to verify their identity when they travel rather than their passport and boarding pass (75%) in order to simplify, speed up and facilitate airport processes such as check-in, security and border control, an International Air Transport Association (IATA) survey has found... More
The total number of consumers globally making contactless mobile payments with a smartphone or other NFC-enabled device will exceed one billion for the first time by 2024, rising from 782m in 2022, according to a Juniper Research forecast... More
PARTNER NEWS: Italian cash register provider RCH has partnered with digital payments technology provider Dejamobile and international payments platform Market Pay to provide its customers with the ability to accept contactless payments on Android NFC devices... More
Contactless World Congress will dive deep into the future of contactless payments, ticketing and credentials in 2023 with a series of five live events that explore the very latest innovations in contactless technology from across the world... More
Apple has begun retailing NFC-enabled smart door locks that are compatible with its digital Home Key feature, enabling users in the USA to lock and unlock their home with a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch using a digital key stored in Wallet... More
UK supermarket chain Tesco is to open three hybrid stores that give customers the option of choosing a checkout-free, automated shopping experience, an unattended self-checkout station or a conventional, manned checkout... More
Société Générale customers with a business account in Morocco can now apply for a biometric bank card that enables them to authorise contactless payments of any amount with their fingerprint rather than using a PIN or any other form of authorisation... More
Airports in the USA and elsewhere around the world could soon begin testing biometric access control cards that use a built-in fingerprint sensor to verify the identity of employees or other authorised cardholders at points of entry to secure areas... More