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
Retail
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
Canadian restaurants use NFC to track reusable food containers
Customers ordering takeaway food from eight restaurants in the Canadian city of Waterloo can now opt to receive their order in a reusable and recyclable food container embedded with an NFC tag that allows the service provider to track each container throughout the reuse cycle... 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
Paco Rabanne launches first NFC-enabled ‘connected fragrance’
Consumers purchasing Paco Rabanne’s latest fragrance for men can access a range of digital content, including information about the product, by tapping an NFC chip embedded in the bottle cap with their smartphone... More
UK to raise contactless transaction limit to £100 on 5 August?
The planned increase in the UK’s contactless transaction limit from £45 to £100 announced by the UK Treasury in March could come into effect on 5 August, according to a Reddit user... More
Vipps, MobilePay and Pivo to merge and launch single digital wallet across Scandinavia
Bank-owned Nordic mobile payment providers Vipps in Norway, MobilePay in Denmark and Pivo in Finland are to merge and will create a single digital wallet that consumers can use in all three countries, as well as for cross-border payments... More
Digital payments now exceed cash for purchases at US vending machines
The average number of digital payments made for purchases from vending machines in the US grew steadily during 2019, finally exceeded those made with cash in April 2020 and continued to increase over the course of 2020, a new study shows... More
Eftpos rolls out secure digital identity exchange for Australian consumers
Australia’s Eftpos national debit card system has launched a digital identity exchange solution that enables consumers to share personal information held by trusted digital ID providers in a wide range of use cases, from opening an online account and making online payments to accessing government services or providing proof of age... More
Visa to begin rolling out instalment payments in Canada
Visa is to launch its Visa Installments payments service in Canada, enabling consumers to choose to pay for purchases made using their credit card in smaller instalments over a specified period of time... More
Russian fast food chain rolls out biometric payments so customers can ‘pay with a glance’
Customers at Kio Kukhnya fast food outlets in the Russian city of St Petersburg can now pay for their food and beverages at payment terminals equipped with biometric pay-with-a-glance technology... More
Polish cinema lets moviegoers pay for tickets using their eyes
Moviegoers at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema in the Polish city of Wroclaw can now pay for their tickets with their eyes via a biometric payments system that makes use of iris recognition technology... More
Hong Kong virtual bank launches ‘all-in-one’ numberless debit and credit card
Customers of Hong Kong-based virtual bank Mox can now apply for an “all-in-one” numberless payments card that they can choose to use as either a debit or a credit card whenever they make a transaction... More
Survey: more than six in ten US consumers say they would pay for a biometric card
Some 65.5% of US consumers would pay for a biometric credit card that has a built-in fingerprint reader for authenticating payments, according to a survey of American credit card users... More
Thai and Malaysian central banks roll out real-time cross-border QR payments
Consumers from Thailand can now make instant cross-border QR code-based payments for goods and services to merchants in Malaysia from their mobile payments app using a service being launched by the Bank of Thailand and Bank Negara Malaysia... More
Beijing banks add support for digital yuan at 3,000 ATMs
Customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Agricultural Bank of China can now exchange cash for digital yuan and vice versa at more than 3,000 ATMs across Beijing, China, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency... More
Three in ten UK consumers now use mobile phones and wearables for payments
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
Visa brings Tap to Phone payments to the US
Retailers and other small business owners in six US cities will soon be able to accept contactless payments on an Android NFC smartphone using Visa’s software-only Tap to Phone solution... More
BBVA launches biometric credit card in Mexico
Customers of BBVA Mexico can now apply for a ‘blank’ biometric credit card that enables them to authenticate payments with their fingerprint... More