The Australian state of Queensland has begun the first of a series of pilots ahead of the rollout of its A$371m (US$249m) Smart Ticketing system, due to go live in 2022. A one-month pilot of new express ticketing gates is taking place at Brisbane’s Central Station More
Public transportation users in Sydney, Australia, are now able to use contactless bank cards, NFC phones or wearable devices to pay for travel across the entire Transport for New South Wales network, including bus services... More
While health applications continue to be the main consumer adoption driver for wrist-worn wearables, support for mobile payments “is also starting to become a mainstay,” according to new research from IDC... More
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
A team of researchers from universities in the UK and China have developed a way to use standard machine embroidering equipment to add NFC capabilities to items of clothing so that the technology continues to work reliably even when the fabric is stretched out of shape by the wearer... More
Passengers using Miami-Dade Transit’s Metrorail service can now pay for their travel using a contactless card issued by Mastercard, Visa or American Express, make mobile payments using Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay or select to use Fitbit Pay to pay with a wearable device... More
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
More than 170,000 journeys have been made using Metrolink’s new contactless payment system in the four weeks since the service launched on 15 July, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has revealed... More
The US Army is looking to replace its current smartcard-based Common Access Card (CAC) with “wireless, lightweight, flexible and rugged” wearable contactless identity tokens that can be inserted into a soldier’s pocket, attached to a sleeve or integrated into a wristband... More
One million CaixaBank customers are now using their mobile phone to make in-store payments, up 87% on this time last year, and 100,000 customers are making payments using wearable devices, the Spanish bank has reported... More
Visa sets sights on a ‘Cashless Japan’ with one year to go to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 — Visa — “At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Visa offered a payment-enabled ring to its Team Visa athletes. At the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Visa commercially sold wearable products, such as gloves and lapel pins, enabled to make payments over contactless payment readers. For Tokyo 2020, Visa is exploring payment innovations ranging from biometric payment authentication and wearables to new mobile applications which will include digitally-issued cards.”
Customers of Swedbank and Nordea Bank in Sweden are now able to load a Mastercard onto any of a range of fashion watches offered by three local watch brands and then use it to make wearable payments at any Mastercard merchant... More
PARTNER NEWS: Expresspay Card, a joint venture between China UnionPay and Bank of China that offers China’s only open loop prepaid card, has partnered with Tappy Technologies and watch brand Saga Watch to offer cardholders a wearable payments option that will be accepted at any merchant equipped to accept China UnionPay contactless payments... More
Chinese mobile device manufacturer Xiaomi has launched the Mi Band 4 NFC fitness tracker that supports contactless NFC payments and QR-based payments through AliPay and can be used as a key when combined with the company’s MI Smart Door Lock... More
TNS report shows alternative and cashless payments adoption at an inflection point with security a concern to wider usage — TNS — “44% of respondents are willing to make a payment using a wearable device like a ring or a bracelet; just under two-thirds (65%) expressed that security concerns would stop them from using a wearable device to make a payment; Australians are most concerned about security (68%) versus Americans (64%) and Britons (63%); more than half of male smartwatch owners have used it to make a payment.”
Kenyan social enterprise Food for Education is speeding up the rollout of its Tap2Eat NFC cash replacement system for subsidised school meals following a successful pilot in three primary schools in Nairobi involving 150 students... More
Swiss FinTech brand Armillion has unveiled the ultimate in wearable technology: a contactless payment bracelet that’s decorated with 252 cut diamonds, costs more than £60,000 (US$78,362) and can be used for purchases of up to £1m (US$1.3m)... More
Belgian bank KBC has reported on the take-up of the non-banking services such as car parking and transit ticketing that it has been adding to its mobile banking app since launching it last summer... More
A dress shirt which incorporates contactless payment technology in the cuff is set to go on sale this summer... More
Wearable-only payments are being introduced at three of the bars at Melbourne’s Albert Park race track for this year’s Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, with plans to expand the service to the entire event in subsequent years... More