More than nine in 10 consumers (93%) will consider using digital payment methods including contactless, QR code and biometric payments as well as cryptocurrency transactions in the next year, according to a Mastercard survey... More
Retail
Mastercard in talks with PBOC over support for cross-border digital yuan transactions
Mastercard is seeking a role in the development of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) by supporting the use of the digital yuan for cross-border transactions and its conversion to and from foreign currencies, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP)... More
Apple Pay goes live in Israel
Apple Pay has rolled out in Israel with support for Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards issued by nine major Israeli banks and credit card companies, according to local media outlets... More
Google Pay to add transit payments to home screen
Google Pay users in the US will soon be able to access mobile transit ticketing services including fare payments and transit card management directly from the app’s home screen on their smartphone or other mobile device... More
Chinese banks unveil CBDC hardware prototypes for multiple use cases
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have unveiled prototype hardware devices that support the use of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of different use cases... More
Samsung Pay to add support for local currencies in South Korea
Consumers in the South Korean province of Gyeonggi-do will soon be able to make mobile payments using local currencies issued by 28 cities and counties across the region using a local currency easy payment platform... More
Norges Bank to test technical solutions for Norwegian CBDC
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
Retail CBDC projects ‘particularly strong’ in emerging economies, PwC index shows
Projects to develop a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use by consumers and businesses are “more advanced” and “particularly strong” in emerging economies, according to analysis by global consultancy firm PwC... More
Russian retail giant adds biometric payments to let customers ‘pay with a glance’
Customers at superstores, supermarkets and convenience and cosmetics stores owned by Russian retail group Magnit can now authenticate contactless payments at self-checkout devices using pay-with-a-glance technology... More
Crédit Agricole issues biometric payment cards in France
Customers of Crédit Agricole can now use their fingerprint to authenticate contactless payments made with a biometric deferred debit card issued by the French bank... More
German savings banks roll out contactless card acceptance on standard NFC phones
Merchants in Germany can now accept PIN-free contactless payments on their Android NFC smartphone without needing extra acceptance technology using a software point of sale (sPOS) solution launched by the Sparkasse group of savings banks... More
UK Treasury and Bank of England launch CBDC taskforce to explore digital currency options
The UK Treasury and the Bank of England have established a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce to coordinate research into the benefits, risks and practicalities of introducing a digital pound... More
Octopus to let Hong Kong cardholders pay for transit fares in mainland China
Octopus users in Hong Kong will soon be able to pay for public transport fares in more than 300 cities in mainland China with a new physical transit card to be launched “by the end of this year or early next year”, according to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report... More
Opera chooses Antelop to enable NFC digital card payments for Dify users
PARTNER NEWS: Opera has selected Antelop Solutions as a long-term digital payments partner, enabling users of its new Dify in-browser cashback and digital wallet app to activate a Dify digital debit card in Google Pay and use it to make NFC payments in stores... More
Stats show regional variations in UK adoption of contactless and mobile payments during pandemic
The number of payments made using Apple Pay and Google Pay increased by nearly 650% and the number of PIN-free contactless card transactions grew by more than 10% in certain regions of the UK, according to figures published by merchant payments provider Dojo... More
UK retailers explore facial analysis technology for customer age verification
Supermarkets, convenience stores and other retailers in the UK could soon begin trialling facial analysis technology that enables them to verify a customer’s age when purchasing alcohol at self-checkouts without requiring a staff member to check their ID... More
ECB survey reveals Europeans expect digital euro to be private, secure and easy to use
More than two-fifths (43%) of Europeans rank privacy as the most important feature of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC), with 18% citing security, 11% the ability to pay across the eurozone, 9% the lack of additional costs and 8% offline usability, according to a European Central Bank (ECB) survey... More
Hong Kong and Macau to distribute stimulus payments to citizens’ digital wallets
The governments of Hong Kong and Macau are to stimulate consumer spending by distributing digital payment vouchers that residents can store in their mobile wallets or on a prepaid smartcard and then use to make purchases from retailers and other local businesses... More
Emirates NBD rewards customers for adopting contactless payments
Customers of Emirates NBD bank in the United Arab Emirates can now earn entries to a prize draw for luxury items whenever they make a contactless payment with their credit or debit card, mobile wallet or payments-enabled wearable device... More
Russia to create digital ruble prototype by December
The Central Bank of Russia will build a prototype central bank digital currency (CBDC) by December 2021 using a two-tier structural model unveiled by bank representatives at a press conference... More