Visa Europe has confirmed that it will play a part in the the UK launch of Apple Pay and will give debit, credit and reloadable prepaid cardholders access to the payment system... More
Prepaid
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
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
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
Vodafone combines tokens and SIMs for NFC payments in Europe
Vodafone customers in five major European markets will be able to use their Visa cards to make NFC mobile payments from the second quarter of this year with a new SIM-based service that makes use of tokenization technology. More
Vivo expands Zuum mobile payments service
MFS, a joint venture between Telefonica-owned carrier Vivo and MasterCard, has expanded its Vivo Zuum mobile payment service to São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil... More
Optus shows off wearable payments
Australian mobile network Optus has shown off a prototype watch that can be used to make contactless payments as an extension of its Cash by Optus prepaid NFC payment app... More
Google exits Kenyan payments venture
BebaPay, a payment card launched by Google and Equity Bank in Kenya in 2013 that let users pay for their bus fare via NFC, is to be discontinued on March 15... More
DCR wins award for HCE prepaid payments service
PARTNER NEWS: DCR’s truTap Mobile Wallet, powered by Carta Worldwide’s host card emulation (HCE) technology, has been named the “Gotta-Have Mobile App” in Paybefore’s annual awards for excellence in the worldwide prepaid, mobile and emerging payments industry... More
PayPal curtails in-store ambitions
The team working on PayPal’s move into in-store payments has been among the hardest hit by layoffs across parent Ebay Inc’s three divisions, Re/code reports, adding that “PayPal’s in-store initiatives, which includes mobile payments and a credit card reader called PayPal Here, have largely been viewed as big disappointments inside the company”... More
Cachet adds prepaid cards to Apple Pay
Prepaid card issuers using Cachet Financial Solutions’ Select Mobile Money white label platform can now offer their customers a way to charge Apple Pay transactions to their prepaid account balance, the company has announced... More
Wirecard to offer white label HCE wristband
The HCE wristband unveiled by technology provider Wirecard earlier this month is to be offered on a white label basis, Joern Leogrande, the company’s EVP of mobile services, has told NFC World+... More
Deloitte: Mobile payment volumes to increase 1000% in 2015
In-store mobile payments will increase by more than 1,000% worldwide this year with 5% of the world’s smartphones being used to make a payment in a store at least once a month, up from under 0.5% in mid-2014, according to the new edition of Deloitte’s annual Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report... More
Optus launches NFC payments in Australia
Australian carrier Optus has teamed up with Visa and Heritage Bank to launch an NFC mobile payment service that lets customers load up to A$500 into a prepaid account and then make payments at any Visa contactless POS terminal... More
Brooklyn Nets launch mobile wallet
American Express has partnered with New York basketball team Brooklyn Nets to pilot Brooklyn eWallet, a digital payment solution integrated into the team’s mobile app that lets fans buy food and drink with their mobile phone at any event held at the Barclays Center arena... More
Dairy Queen expands mobile loyalty and payment test
US fast food chain Dairy Queen has expanded pilot testing of its myDQ mobile loyalty, offers and payments service to more than sixty locations in the states of Colorado and Nebraska ahead of a planned rollout of the solution to all its 4,500 US franchise locations... More
Ireland’s Leap Card to get NFC top-ups
Ireland’s National Transport Authority has awarded a contract to transit specialist Vix to enable Leap prepaid card users to top up their balance via NFC... More
Desjardins launches NFC payments in Canada
An NFC mobile payments service is now available to customers of Quebec-based financial institution Desjardins Group... More
US merchant groups call for creation of open tokenization standards
Leading merchant groups in the US have come together to call for the creation of an alternative set of open standards for tokenized payments that would be managed by an independent body such as ISO or ANSI — rather than by the payments industry. More