Digital payment platforms primed to topple cash — US Bank — “According to the recent US Bank Cash Behavior Survey, 47% of consumers surveyed say they prefer the use of digital apps to make payments versus cash (45%)… Overall, 50% of survey respondents reported carrying cash less than half of the time. When they do carry cash, nearly half of consumers surveyed keep less than US$20 on hand, and 76% keep less than $50.”
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NFC mobile payments ‘shake off the novelty tag’ in the UK
British consumers used their mobile phones to spend more than £370m (US$477m) in stores equipped with contactless payments terminals during the first half of 2017, an increase of 336% on the amount spent during the first half of 2016, transaction data analysis conducted by payments processor Worldpay has found... More
Bank issues primary school kids with NFC smartwatches that let them make payments and track pocket money
Singapore’s POSB bank has provided 6,000 primary school children with smartwatches equipped with fitness tracking and mobile payments capabilities in a bid to “teach students how to save and spend wisely by helping them track their savings and spending habits digitally.”... More
New Little Caesars Reserve-n-Ready service transforms the way customers pick up pizza
New Little Caesars Reserve-n-Ready service transforms the way customers pick up pizza — Little Caesars — “Customers just place an order and pre-pay via the Little Caesars mobile app. The app will notify the customer when the order is ready. When the customer arrives at the store, they skip the line and go directly to the Pizza Portal and input a three-digit pin or scan a QR code. Then, the door on the customer’s secured compartment opens, and they take their hot, fresh order.”
Mobile payment usage ‘remains low’, US debit card study finds
“Combined, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay account for only about one quarter of 1% of US debit transactions,” the annual Debit Issuer Study from debit and ATM network Pulse has found, while the country’s move to EMV chip cards has cut debit card fraud loss rates but “fraud continues to challenge issuers.”... More
Report: 2017 Mobile Payment Usage in China
Report: 2017 Mobile Payment Usage in China — Tencent Research Institute — “Chinese consumers spent US$5.5tn via mobile payment platforms last year, about 50 times more than their American counterparts… 74% of people stated that they can live for more than a month with only 100 RMB (US$14.94) in cash. 84% people reported that they could accept a totally cashless life.”
M-Pesa founder shares lessons learned from ten years of mobile money
M-Pesa pioneer Michael Joseph, founding CEO of Safaricom and now director of mobile money at Vodafone Group, explains how the service works and the lessons learned from building and deploying one of the world’s most successful mobile money services in an in-depth Q&A that is now available to download free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Barclaycard pilots Alipay payments in eight retail stores across UK
Barclaycard pilots Alipay payments in eight retail stores across UK — Banking Technology — “The pilot will commence on 14 August 2017 in eight retail stores across the UK, with Barclaycard providing the POS solution for payments via Alipay. The service will be available in CNY (‘offered at a competitive exchange rate,’ Barclaycard says).”
More than half the Hilton portfolio to be digital key enabled by end of year
More than half the Hilton portfolio to be digital key enabled by end of year — Hilton — “Hilton Honors members have widely adopted the app’s technology features and continue to set new records for usage and engagement, including 30m digital check-ins, three million room key downloads and more than 13.6m doors opened. In the month of July, a door was unlocked with Digital Key every two seconds.”
Walmart deploying tech that lets in-store shoppers check out — on their own
Walmart deploying tech that lets in-store shoppers check out — on their own — Chain Store Age — “The free app allows members to scan merchandise bar codes as they move throughout store aisles and add merchandise to their shopping carts. The app also keeps a running total and itemized list of merchandise and prices, and lets shoppers checkout directly through their smartphone.”
China targets mobile payments oligopoly with clearing mandate
China targets mobile payments oligopoly with clearing mandate — Financial Times — “China’s central bank has ordered online payment groups to operate through a centralised clearing house, a move likely to undercut the dominance of Ant Financial and Tencent by forcing them to share valuable transaction data with competitors… The latest PBoC instructions require all payment companies to connect to the clearing house by October 15 and to channel all payments through it by June 30.”
Green Dot CEO sets out how Apple Pay Cash will work
Prepaid card provider Green Dot “will perform several roles” for Apple when the iPhone maker launches its P2P payments and Apple Pay Cash services in the US in September, Green Dot CEO Steven Streit has revealed during the company’s Q2 2017 earnings call... More
Big banks on notice that they’re losing ground to China’s fintech giants
Big banks on notice that they’re losing ground to China’s fintech giants — South China Morning Post — “Tencent, the Chinese company, over Chinese New Year, in five days processed 46 billion payments. Basically that means 800 million payments per hour. Visa has a maximum capacity of processing 25,000 payments per second. But Alipay can process 50,000 payments, twice as much, per second.”
Fraud cases across three prefectures involving Apple Pay exploit loophole: Sources
Fraud cases across three prefectures involving Apple Pay exploit loophole: Sources — The Mainichi — “Multiple fraud cases involving stolen credit card information via Apple’s iPhone payment system ‘Apple Pay’ occurred across Osaka, Kyoto and Saitama prefectures in late March this year, investigative sources have revealed… Apple Japan said it had confirmed the Saitama cases, and a source disclosed that after the incidents occurred, Apple reportedly gathered credit card issuing companies together and warned them to exercise caution.”
UK card expenditure statistics: June 2017
UK card expenditure statistics: June 2017 — UK Finance — “There were just under 1.4bn card payments in June, a monthly record and a 12% rise in the last 12 months. This is the highest annual rate of growth in the number of payments since June 2008, driven by a robust rise in online (+20%) and contactless (+143%) purchases… Contactless payments accounted for 34% of all card transactions, while online payments accounted for 13%.”
European consumers give thumbs up to biometric payment cards
Nine in ten consumers taking part in the first European trial of a biometric payment card developed by Mastercard say they “would upgrade or probably upgrade” their favourite card to one that includes the biometric security feature if it was available, a survey by issuing bank UniCredit Bulbank has found... More
New Texas law allows merchants to decline card purchases without ID
New Texas law allows merchants to decline card purchases without ID — The Texas Tribune — “A law that takes effect in January will allow Texas merchants to ask for photo identification for credit and debit card purchases — and turn down transactions if a buyer won’t show it… Payments made using a mobile wallet are exempt from the photo ID measure.”
Bank of America, Samsung pilot iris-scan logins
Bank of America, Samsung pilot iris-scan logins — American Banker — “Half of the bank’s mobile app users are using fingerprint authentication, which BofA rolled out in 2015. In addition to the iris scanning pilot, it is exploring the use of facial scanning and voice recognition.”
Half a billion people in China use mobile payment
Half a billion people in China use mobile payment — ECNS — “More than 100bn transactions were completed on cashless applications in China in 2016, while the number of mobile payment users has reached half a billion this year, according to official data.”
Introducing Venmo Codes: A new way to find your friends on Venmo
Introducing Venmo Codes: A new way to find your friends on Venmo — Venmo — “We know that sometimes it can be hard finding the right James Smith to pay or request money from on Venmo. To make your life easier, we’re introducing Venmo codes, so you can easily find the Venmo profile of the person you’re trying to pay.”