UK-based neobank Monzo is to use app notifications to provide customers who have a contactless card transaction declined due to new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements with the information needed for them to successfully complete their transaction... More
Retail
Ahold Delhaize to roll out NFC shelf edge labels in supermarkets across Europe
European supermarket group Ahold Delhaize is to equip its stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Czech Republic, Serbia and Romania with NFC-enabled electronic shelf edge labels that shoppers can tap to obtain more information about a product — and then add the items to their shopping basket so that they can self-checkout on their mobile phone... More
PepsiCo unveils customer loyalty programme that delivers cashback rewards to PayPal and Venmo accounts
PepsiCo has launched a loyalty programme that lets customers use their mobile phone to scan a code printed on drink bottles and snack bags to earn 10% cashback each time they buy both a drink and a snack — and receive their rewards as an automatic credit to their PayPal or Venmo account each time their balance reaches US$2... More
Bluey Merino to use NFC tags to guarantee the authenticity of its clothing
Bluey Merino, an Australian active and outdoor clothing brand that produces garments exclusively made from premium Merino wool, has developed NFC labels that customers can use to confirm the origin of the wool in their new product by simply scanning the label with their NFC mobile phone... More
NAB to integrate receipts into mobile banking app
Customers of National Australia Bank will be able to begin viewing receipts for their purchases from within their mobile banking app from later this year... More
Nissan to build RFID payments into all cars sold in Brazil
All Nissan vehicles manufactured in Brazil are to come factory-installed with Sem Parar RFID tags, enabling them to be used to make in-vehicle payments for electronic tolls, car parking, fuel and retail transactions — including at McDonald’s drive-thrus across the country... More
Albert Heijn opens cashierless supermarket in the Netherlands
Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn has opened an autonomous mini supermarket that lets shoppers use their bank card to gain entry to the store, select items valued at up to the contactless card limit of €25 and then self-checkout — without the need to first download an app... More
Swift to let banks pre-authorise funds for later purchases
Swift has published a new open banking API standard that “allows a payer’s bank to earmark funds for a purchase in advance, guaranteeing that the future payment will be honoured”... More
Polish merchants to pilot dongle-free contactless payments
Merchants in Poland are to be the first to pilot a new service that enables them to accept contactless payments of any amount “via a smartphone or tablet, in the same way a traditional payment terminal functions but with no additional equipment”... More
Sainsbury’s halts cashierless supermarket pilot
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has added a manned till and two self-checkout stations to the London store it opened in April as the UK’s first checkout-free supermarket... More
Amazon to pilot biometric payments in Whole Foods stores?
A biometric payments system that uses the shape of a shopper’s hand to identify them at the point of sale (POS) is currently being tested by Amazon employees ahead of a planned pilot at “a handful” of Whole Foods supermarkets early next year, the New York Post reports... More
China to begin issuing digital currency in November?
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is preparing to launch a central bank-backed digital currency on 11 November, according to a Forbes report — and is to kickstart usage by distributing it to UnionPay, Tencent, Alibaba and several Chinese banks in time for consumers to use it on Singles Day, the country’s busiest shopping day... More
Lojas Americanas opens checkout-free automated convenience stores in Brazil
Lojas Americanas, Brazil’s largest retailer, has opened the first of a series of Ame Go convenience stores that use a combination of smart shelf sensors, overhead cameras and QR-enabled entry and exit barriers to remove the need to install physical checkout stations... More
Apple rolls out Apple Card, extends 3% cashback offer to third party merchants
Apple Card is now available to all US consumers, the iPhone maker has announced — and the 3% cashback offered to cardholders who use their card to make an Apple Pay mobile payment for an Apple product will now be available from “more merchants and apps”... More
National QR mobile payments service to go live in Indonesia
Indonesia’s central bank says it has now completed the development of QRIS, an EMV-compliant national QR Code Indonesian Standard for mobile payments... More
7-Eleven brings mobile self-checkout to New York stores
Shoppers at 7-Eleven stores in New York can now use their mobile phones to self-checkout and pay for their purchases, the convenience store giant has announced. “Mobile Checkout takes convenience to the next level, letting customers in New York City skip the checkout.” More
Barclays opens Pingit wearable payments store
Barclays has opened an online store which will offer users of its Pingit mobile payments service a wide range of wearable payments devices, including watches, jewellery, wristbands and key fobs... More
EMVCo to support eight-digit Issuer Identification Numbers from 2021
EMVCo is to add support for eight-digit Issuer Identification Numbers (IINs) in 2021, with the result that “point of sale terminals may need to be updated to ensure they recognise and have the ability to process both existing and longer IINs, or transactions may be terminated or processed incorrectly”... More
Sub-prime borrowers to boost US Apple Pay adoption?
Apple has instructed its Apple Card issuing partner Goldman Sachs “to approve as many of its 100 million-plus iPhone users in the US as possible” for its new credit card “within the bounds of regulations and responsible lending,” CNBC reports... More
UK issuers and merchants to get extra 18 months to implement Strong Customer Authentication
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed to give card issuers and merchants an extra 18 months to implement Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), the new customer identity verification regulation which forms part of the EU’s revised Payment Services Directive II (PSD2)... More