The US Federal Reserve has published a study examining the potential benefits and risks of issuing an American central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the first step in a public consultation on the possible future issuance of a digital dollar... More
Some 17.3 million people or nearly a third (32%) of adult consumers in the UK were registered to use their smartphone or smart watch to make mobile payments in stores by the end of 2020, a “significant” increase of 7.4 million people compared with 2019, according to UK Finance... More
Ensuring that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are interoperable and integrated with existing payment infrastructures are among the key requirements for their successful implementation in cross border transactions, according to a joint paper published by Swift and Accenture... More
Norway’s central bank Norges Bank is to test “various technical solutions for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the next two years”, the bank’s CBDC working group has announced in its third project report... More
The number of registered mobile money accounts globally grew by 13% in 2020 to reach a total of more than 1.2bn, according to research by the GSMA... More
The total value of contactless transactions made using payment services provided by smartphone and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will reach more than US$1tn in 2022, a rise of 377% on 2019, Kaleido Intelligence predicts... More
Total global revenue from tokenization provisioning and management for mobile payments will exceed US$53bn in 2025, an increase of more than 180% from US$18bn in 2020, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Contactless in-store payments made with a mobile wallet worldwide exceeded in-store cash payments for the first time during 2020, new research reveals... More
The total value of the global plastic cards market has fallen by US$3bn over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number manufactured worldwide falling by 19.7% from 37.1bn in 2019 to 29.8bn in 2020, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA)... More
Nearly one in two Americans (46%) are most likely or definitely interested in mobile payment options for public transit ticketing “for a safer mass transit journey”, a survey of consumers in 28 countries around the world has found... More
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is to develop a proof of concept platform to explore the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for cross-border payments and has identified CBDCs as one of six “thematic priorities” for the year... More
A third of Indian households across a range of income groups now use digital payment methods, but “this can easily go up to 50% given high desire to use,” research from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and People Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE) reveals... More
Visa has published a research paper exploring an offline payment system (OPS) protocol for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) that would enable users to make digital payments to other users even when both sender and recipient are temporarily offline or unable to connect to a bank, payment network or other intermediary... More
A single global retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) and a single global 24/7 payment system could be an “optimum solution” as the basis for a new payment model “enhancing market discipline and fairness to all stakeholders”, according to a new paper... More
Ecommerce businesses in 23 of the world’s poorer nations have seen “a notable increase” in digital payments as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)... More
The central role traditionally played by banks in the European payments ecosystem “may be coming under challenge” as some specialist payments providers reach double-digit growth rates in payment revenues, according to a report jointly published by the Euro Banking Association and McKinsey & Company... More
The number of outlets worldwide accepting card payments will reach nearly 100m by the end of 2025, an increase driven by government initiatives to promote cashless payments and by an acceleration in the move to contactless payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, research from RBR predicts... More
The number of contactless transactions made by some 140 million JCB cardholders across 24 markets increased by more than 30% between July 2019 and July this year, the Tokyo-based payments network reports in a new white paper... More
The number of iPhone users globally that have activated Apple Pay has grown by 66m over the past year, from 441m in September 2019 to 507m in September 2020, according to a study published by Loup Ventures... More
The total global transaction value of purchases made using smart home devices is expected to rise from US$22bn this year to more than US$164bn in 2025, according to Juniper Research... More