The number of checkout-free contactless stores around the world increased from 87 in 2020 to 252 in 2021 and will rise by more than 90% a year to exceed 12,000 by the end of 2027, according to Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
Retail
One in five Chinese consumers have now downloaded China’s digital currency app
Nearly one in five Chinese consumers have downloaded the country’s official digital yuan wallet app (19%), with the majority of them mainly using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for ecommerce purchases (72%) and payments for public services such as transportation (67%), a survey by US research firm Morning Consult has found... More
More than 90% of card present payments worldwide were made using EMV chip cards in 2021
More than nine in ten card present transactions conducted globally (90.44%) were made using EMV chip-enabled payment cards between January and December 2021, up from 88.55% in 2020, according to standards body EMVCo... More
Ireland tops survey of contactless and cashless payments usage across 14 markets
Nearly two-thirds of consumers in Ireland now make contactless payments with a mobile phone, smartwatch or other device (65%) at least once a month compared with an average of just over half of consumers in other countries (55%), a survey has found... More
Apple Pay users in the US to get buy now pay later option with iOS 16
Apple iPhone users in the US will soon be able to opt to spread payments for purchases made using Apple Pay over a period of six weeks in four equal instalments using a ‘buy now, pay later’ service integrated into Wallet... More
Square to let merchants begin testing contactless payment acceptance on iPhone with Apple’s Tap to Pay
Merchants will soon be able to accept contactless payments directly on their iPhone using Apple’s Tap to Pay feature via the Square Point of Sale (POS) app without needing to connect their device to any additional hardware... More
Global chip shortages drive increased costs for contactless card manufacturers and issuers
The price of EMV-compliant chips supplied to contactless payment card manufacturers increased by more than 50% in 2021 and is expected to rise by more than 20% during 2022 with the overall cost to card issuers for finished first-use plastic cards rising by between 5% and 20% during 2021, according to US research firm Nilson Report... More
China pilots NFC devices that combine digital currency payments with student IDs
Students attending Hainan Lu Xun Middle School in the Chinese city of Sanya are the first in the country to trial a digital yuan hard wallet device that enables them to make payments to designated merchants on and off the school’s campus using China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) as well as verify their identity using NFC... More
Biometric remote mobile payments to be worth US$1.2tn globally by 2027
Total transaction values for remote mobile payments authorised using biometric authentication technologies such as face or fingerprint recognition worldwide will reach US$1.2tn by 2027 compared with US$332bn in 2022, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Galp opens contactless fuel station store in Lisbon
Iberian fuel station network Galp has opened its first contactless convenience store on a forecourt in Lisbon in Portugal, enabling customers to select food, snacks, beverages and non-perishable goods from the shelves and leave without needing to scan their purchases or wait in line to use a checkout... More
SunCash lets consumers in the Bahamas make CBDC payments with their face
Consumers in the Bahamas can now authorise in-store payments using the country’s Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) from a SunCash mobile wallet with their face... More
Federal Reserve reports sharp drop in US cash use during Covid-19 pandemic
The total number of payments in the USA made using cash fell from just over one in four in 2019 (26%) to under one in five in 2020 (19%) before increasing slightly to 20% in 2021, the Federal Reserve reports... More
Global survey finds more than half of consumers continue to prefer using a physical payment card for in-person purchases
More than one in two consumers worldwide prefer using a physical payment card to using cash or a digital wallet when making in-person purchases (53%), a survey has revealed... More
Crédit Agricole de Lorraine rolls out biometric payment cards in France
Customers of French bank Crédit Agricole de Lorraine can now apply for a biometric card that enables them to authenticate contactless payments above the country’s €50 (US$53) contactless transaction limit with their fingerprint and without needing to use their PIN... More
National QR payments system goes live at Subway stores in Australia
Two Subway outlets in Sydney and Brisbane are “the first major Australian quick-service restaurants” to let customers pay for their purchases using the national QR code payments and rewards platform developed by Australia’s Eftpos payments system... More
Apple staff test Tap to Pay contactless payment acceptance feature for iPhone
Apple has begun testing its Tap to Pay software point of sale (sPOS) feature that enables merchants to accept contactless payments directly on their iPhone at its Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino in the US state of California... More
Mastercard to let consumers make card-free biometric payments in store with their face or palm
Mastercard has a launched a biometric checkout scheme that sets out standards and requirements for in-store biometric payment solutions enabling consumers to make contactless biometric payments with their face or palm and without needing to use a payment card or mobile device... More
EU accuses Apple of breaching competition law by restricting NFC chip access
The European Commission has sent an official statement of objections to Apple laying out the reasons why it believes the company has “abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices” and is restricting competition by limiting third-party access to its NFC chip technology... More
Fidor Bank to launch biometric payment cards
German online bank Fidor is to roll out biometric payment cards that will allow users to authenticate contactless payments with their fingerprint and without needing to use a PIN... More
PayPal and Alipay top digital wallet leaderboard
PayPal, followed by Alipay, are the top two digital wallet providers, with WeChat Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively, according to a Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard report... More