Apple Pay is experiencing “phenomenal traction”, with transaction volume up 450% over the last 12 months, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed. Monthly Apple Pay transactions have grown by nearly 300% in the last year across the UK, while in Japan more than half a million transit users are completing 20m Apple Pay transactions per month. More
Wearables
Samsung Pay rolls out to Gear S3 in Korea as Samsung Pay Mini launches
Samsung Pay is now available on the Gear S3 smartwatch in Korea and Samsung Pay Mini — the pared-down version of the mobile payment service — has also gone live in the country... More
Goode reports on growth of biometric authentication
Revenues for mobile and wearable biometric authentication will exceed US$6.2bn by 2022, Goode Intelligence predicts... More
Samsung Pay launches in Sweden and the UAE, enters early access in Hong Kong and Switzerland
Samsung Pay has expanded to four additional markets with official launches in Sweden and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and early access launches in Hong Kong and Switzerland. The service has also been made available on Samsung’s Gear S3 smartwatch in Russia, Sweden and the UAE in addition to its availability on the Gear S3 in the US, Singapore and Australia. More
bPay contactless wearables enable automatic donations to UK charities
A new range of wearable devices equipped with Barclaycard’s bPay contactless technology will enable UK consumers to automatically donate the small change from any contactless payment they make using the device to charities of their choice. More
Lloyds to trial biometrics for online banking
Customers of Lloyds Banking Group across the UK will soon be able to log into their online banking accounts using fingerprint or facial recognition through Microsoft’s Windows Hello biometric authentication technology. The banking group is to trial the solution with Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers with Windows 10 devices in the second half of this year. More
UAE residents to use NFC for ‘a wide range’ of mobile payments services
Consumers across the United Arab Emirates will soon be able to make payments across a “variety of services” using their mobile phone and Empay, a common mobile payment platform based on NFC. The solution forms part of Dubai’s Smart Government Initiative which aims to transform Dubai into the world’s smartest city. More
Australian banks lose fight to gain access to NFC functionality in Apple iPhones
The group of Australian banks seeking stronger negotiating powers with Apple over the NFC technology within its iPhone handsets have been denied access to it by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on the grounds that the proposed conduct would “reduce or distort competition in a number of markets” and that the benefits are “outweighed by the detriments”. More
Ted Baker and Mondaine to add NFC payments to watches
Fashion brand Ted Baker and Swiss luxury watchmaker Mondaine are to integrate NFC payments into a range of watches to enable customers to make payments using technology supplied by Tappy Technologies, which has also partnered with Barclaycard to offer bPay contactless payment technology in the UK... More
Westpac launches payments keyboard for chat apps
Customers of Australian bank Westpac will soon be able to use an innovative replacement for the default keyboard found in social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to make P2P money transfers to friends, family and businesses as well as send cardless cash codes to recipients for ATM withdrawals. More
Samsung Pay goes live across India with support for Paytm and UPI money transfers
Samsung Pay has launched in India with support from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank, with Citibank India support expected “shortly”. The service has also integrated India’s leading mobile wallet Paytm and comes with support for peer-to-peer money transfers through the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface platform. More
Rambus predicts how we will pay in 2020
PARTNER NEWS: An eight-page guide exploring how key developments in mobile payments will shape the industry in the next three years is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Tag Heuer unveils connected watch range with Android Pay
Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer has unveiled the second generation of its connected watch range, powered by Google’s Android Wear 2.0 operating system and offering host card emulation (HCE) payments through Android Pay... More
Wearable payments platform to be tested on three continents
A digital cash service allowing consumers — including those without bank accounts — to load money onto a range of wearable items and make contactless payments in retail outlets will roll out across “eight or nine countries” in North America, Europe and Africa from April 2017... More
Smart posters and clothes piggyback on FM signals to talk to phones and car radios
A technique to develop smart posters and clothing, which communicate directly with car radios or smartphones by using background FM radio signals to transform them into mini FM radio stations consuming virtually zero power, has been unveiled by a University of Washington (UW) team... More
Mastercard analyzes social media payments buzz
Digital wallets were the new way to pay most discussed by consumers on social media in 2016, the 2017 edition of the Mastercard Digital Payments Study has found, with consumers around the world also increasingly interested in the payments possibilities of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, smart home assistants, wearables, and the Internet of Things... More
Wristbands for contactless payments given away at MWC
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and Spain’s CaixaBank have distributed prepaid wristbands to visitors to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which let them make contactless payments... More
Pizza Hut unveils pizza-ordering shoes
Pizza Hut has unveiled a pair of shoes with a button that lets wearers order pizza and get it delivered... More
Huawei includes NFC payments in new smartwatch
Huawei has unveiled a new smartwatch at Mobile World Congress that supports NFC payments... More
NXP reveals secure element and NFC solution that speeds transaction times, increases security and supports smaller form factors
PARTNER NEWS: A new embedded secure element and NFC solution from NXP will make it possible for mobile transactions to be conducted at the same speed as contactless card transactions... More