Australian consumers can now upload a digital private health insurance card to Apple Wallet and use their iPhone or Apple Watch to make an insurance claim by tapping a healthcare provider’s Health Insurance Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) terminal... More
Contactless
Sofia rolls out open loop contactless ticketing on public transport network
Passengers on buses, trams and trolleybuses in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia can now pay their fares by simply tapping their physical contactless credit or debit card or a digital card uploaded to their NFC mobile wallet on an on-board reader... More
Turkish taxis drivers get contactless payments acceptance on NFC Android phones
Taxi drivers in Turkey can now accept contactless payments on their NFC Android smartphone without needing a separate point of sale (POS) terminal or any other additional hardware... More
Unspent stored value on Starbucks prepaid cards nears US$1.63bn
Starbucks customers have accumulated a total unspent balance of US$1.628bn on the company’s prepaid physical and digital reward and gift cards, the coffee giant’s 2021 Q3 earnings call has revealed... More
Santa Barbara gets fare capped open loop contactless ticketing as California rollout expands
Passengers travelling on express bus services in the Santa Barbara region of the US state of California can now pay their fares by tapping an on-board payment reader with their contactless debit, credit, prepaid card or mobile wallet... More
Oman to make it mandatory for all merchants to accept cashless payments
All merchants and other commercial enterprises across the Sultanate of Oman will be obligated to offer customers the option of making cashless payments for goods and services from 1 January 2022... More
Juniper forecasts contactless card transactions will total US$2.5tn globally in 2021
The total value of contactless card transactions worldwide will reach US$2.5tn in 2021, up from US$1.7tn in 2020, Juniper Research predicts. The researchers also forecast that card payments will retain “the majority share of overall contactless transaction values at 79% in 2021”. More
Polish mobile payments service lets users make NFC payments direct from bank account
Consumers in Poland will soon be able to use their Android NFC device to make tokenized contactless payments at the point of sale (POS) directly from their bank account via their mobile banking app without needing a debit or credit card... More
Swiss mobile payments provider to roll out cross-border payments in 2022
Swiss consumers with a Twint digital wallet will be able to make digital payments with their credit card or directly from their bank account in other European countries from 2022, the Swiss mobile payments service says... More
Liverpool Football Club rolls out NFC ticketing for all home games
Fans of Liverpool Football Club in England will be able to gain entry to home games at Anfield Stadium by scanning a digital NFC season pass or match ticket stored on their smartphone at stadium turnstiles... More
Moscow Metro lets passengers top up their Troika transit card from their mobile banking app
Passengers travelling on Moscow Metro can now buy and top up a Troika transit card directly from within their mobile banking app... More
People’s Bank of China issues digital yuan trial progress report
Nearly 21m (20.87m) personal and 3.51m corporate digital yuan wallets have so far been issued during China’s ongoing trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed... More
Digital passport for thoroughbred racehorses rolls out in UK and Ireland
Owners, trainers and breeders of thoroughbred racehorses in the UK and Ireland will soon be able to receive a digital passport that will allow them to confirm the identity of a horse and store information about its health, welfare, movements and ownership... More
European Central Bank officially launches digital euro project
The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched its digital euro project with a two-year investigation into key issues regarding the design, distribution and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Google lets US Android users make in-store NFC payments from their Google Pay balance
Google Pay users with an NFC-enabled Android smartphone in the US can now request a virtual debit card that allows them to make in-store contactless payments directly from their Google Pay balance... More
China to launch digital yuan nationwide after 2022 Winter Olympics?
China could be ready to officially launch the digital yuan as a fully operational central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, according to reports in the Chinese media... More
Survey: Four in five consumers globally would use a biometric payment card
More than four fifths of consumers (81%) worldwide are ready to use a biometric payment card and authenticate payments with their fingerprint rather than a PIN code, according to a survey commissioned by a biometric technology provider... More
ST and Feig let manufacturers personalise whole pallets of NFC-enabled products in their packaging
PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics and Feig Electronic have introduced a new bulk personalisation system that makes it possible for manufacturers to quickly and easily personalise large volumes of products equipped with dynamic NFC tags at a distance of up to one metre... More
MTA sees open loop fare payments double as Omny system tops 100m taps
Passengers on New York’s subway and bus services have now tapped their contactless bank card, smartphone or wearable device to pay fares using the Omny open loop fare payment system more than 100m times since its launch in May 2019, double the total of 50m the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reported in March this year... More
New Zealand to launch national open loop contactless fare payments in 2022
Public transport users in the New Zealand city of Canterbury will be the first to be able to make contactless fare payments with a new national public transport smartcard or their own credit or debit card using an account-based open loop payments system being introduced by the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency... More