Apple has agreed to make changes to the way that Apple Pay works following an investigation by Weko, Switzerland’s Competition Commission — also known as Comco — which found that the iPhone maker’s NFC payments service can cause issues with the functioning of the Swiss banks’ Twint mobile payment service... More
Alipay Box to utilize facial recognition tech for payments — Shine — “Alibaba’s financial and payment affiliate Ant Financial has released smart payment hardware called Alipay Box, integrating barcode scanning and facial recognition features… The plug-and-play device, which is smaller than a traditional self-service point of sale (POS) machine, does not require an overhaul of the merchants’ existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.”
Fans of one of Europe’s top soccer clubs will be able to use the NFC functionality in their iPhone or Apple Watch to gain admittance to games at the team’s home stadium from 19 December... More
SoftBank and Yahoo Japan-backed PayPay is to go live in Japan on 4 December with a 10bn yen (US$88.6m) promotional campaign that will see users receiving a 20% cashback on all the purchases they make with the new QR mobile payments service between the launch date and 31 March 2019, up to a monthly cashback total of 50,000 yen (US$443) per customer... More
The Royal British Legion is distributing contactless cards at charity events in the UK which participants can scan with an NFC phone to be automatically directed to a website where they can make a donation using either Paypal or a bank card... More
Convenience store giant 7-Eleven is piloting a mobile self-checkout service in 14 stores in the Dallas area, just two months after it began accepting contactless and mobile payments across its 8,000+ US stores... More
“The US market is poised for significant contactless growth over the coming year,” Visa CEO Alfred F Kelly has told analysts... More
Alipay has shown off a QR code-based payment system designed for public transit that can process transactions even when both the commuter’s device and the terminal are offline... More
Amazon is entering the in-store payments market in India with the launch of ‘Amazon Smile’ QR codes that will enable shoppers to make purchases in shops... More
CIMB is first in Malaysia to bring QR acceptance from six mobile wallets on one payment terminal — CIMB Bank — “The six mobile wallet partners to be accepted on CIMB terminal are Alipay, Touch & Go Digital, Boost, KiplePay, Mcash, and Vcash. These six mobile wallets have a combined estimated customer base of about 4.5 million in Malaysia and 520 million registered mainland Chinese users.”
Taiwan Cooperative Bank completed Taiwan’s first standardized QR code payment in partnership with Visa — Visa — “By adopting the EMV QR Code Specification, as supported by Taiwan’s two large domestic payment switches, consumers can enjoy a fast, convenient and secure payment experience. The specifications are intended to be globally interoperable; and with the right mobile application local consumers as well as overseas travellers will be able to use the same QR code to make payments everywhere the specifications have been adopted.”
SBI Ripple Asia’s MoneyTap app has launched in Japan — Coindesk — “The product allows users to send funds to others using just their telephone numbers or a QR code, and utilizes devices’ biometric log-in features, such as fingerprint scanning, for security… Currently, the service is only able to remit between accounts held at the three participating Japanese banks — SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank. Payments are being offered at no charge and can be sent in Japanese yen or foreign currencies.”
The launch of Faster Payment System (FPS) — Hong Kong Monetary Authority — “The FPS is a unique platform as it supports instant payments in the HKD and the RMB with the use of mobile phone numbers, email addresses or QR codes… A free mobile application tool, namely ‘Hong Kong Common QR Code’ (HKQR), is released today, which can be used for converting multiple QR codes from different payment service providers into a single, combined QR code. This would facilitate merchants, especially small and medium enterprises, in using a single QR code to accept different payment schemes, instead of displaying multiple QR codes to their customers.”
Huami announces launch of new Amazfit Verge smartwatch — Huami — “Digital wallet functionality in conjunction with UnionPay and Alipay, combined with integrated one-touch public transportation payment in over 160 cities in China, [helps] users capture the convenience of full digital transactions (through NFC and QR codes). The Verge can be also used as entrance access device utilising NFC technology.”
Singapore introduces world’s first unified payment QR code — SGQR — Monetary Authority of Singapore — “The first of its kind globally, SGQR combines multiple payment QR codes into a single SGQR label, making QR code-based mobile payments simple for both consumers and merchants. SGQR will be adopted by 27 payment schemes including PayNow, NETS, GrabPay, Liquid Pay and Singtel Dash, and will be deployed progressively over the next six months.”
A nationwide mobile payments system backed by three Lithuanian mobile network operators has gone into public beta testing and signed up 6,000 new users in its first 24 hours... More
Building services for every Indian, in their language — Google India — “Since launching our India-first payments app Tez last September, over 22 million people and businesses have used Tez to make over 750m transactions that are collectively worth over $30bn annually. We believe that many of the innovations and features we have pioneered with Tez will work in other countries. To take Tez beyond India, we will be unifying all of Google’s payment offerings globally. As a first step, Tez will now be called Google Pay.”
PARTNER PROFILE: Ginstr’s SaaS platform provides companies looking to efficiently manage their field staff or their assets with a quick and simple to deploy cloud-based solution that comes with over 80 pre-developed applications and can be fully branded and tailored to meet each customer’s specific needs... More
Chat app Line plots finance ‘revolution’ with mobile payments — Nikkei Asian Review — “Line, the operator of Japan’s leading chat app, is pushing hard into the banking sphere with plans to aggressively expand in mobile payments, aiming to get its 75 million users hooked on transactions without the fees imposed by conventional banks… Line is rolling out a version of its app that will let small and midsize merchants accept QR code-based payments via Line Pay. Transaction surcharges will be waived for the first three years, and the system costs nothing to set up.”
SoftBank and Yahoo Japan JV to launch ‘PayPay’, barcode-based smartphone payment services in collaboration with India’s Paytm in the fall — SoftBank — “PayPay Corporation, a joint venture established by SoftBank Corp and Yahoo Japan Corporation, today announced that the company will launch ‘PayPay’ smartphone payment services using barcodes (QR code) in fall 2018. PayPay Corporation will team up with India’s largest digital payment company Paytm, a SoftBank Vision Fund portfolio company, to utilize Paytm’s technology and expertise in mobile payments… The service will be free to affiliate stores for the first three years from its launch.”