CUA, Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution, has become the first in the Asia Pacific region to launch an NFC payments service that makes use of host card emulation (HCE) technology. More
Singapore’s United Overseas Bank has reported a more than three-fold increase in contactless card transactions in the year to April 2014, with more than 500 contactless purchases now being made each day... More
PayPal is piloting Next-Day Settlement (NDS), a new service that cuts the time taken for transfers between a merchant’s PayPal account and their bank account from the usual three or four days to 24 hours... More
China UnionPay is developing a QR code-based mobile payment service that will provide a way to make both online and offline mobile payments, according to Marbridge Consulting... More
Swedish firm Seamless, developer of the NFC and QR-based Seqr mobile payments service, has signed deals with Optimal Payments and Contis Group to bring the solution to the UK... More
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Synchrony Financial, formerly GE Capital Retail Finance, has made “a strategic investment” in LoopPay, developer of a mobile phone add-on that lets US consumers make payments at merchants equipped with magnetic stripe card terminals... More
Two thirds of UK smartphone owners are open to the idea of using a mobile wallet, according to a survey conducted by Marketing Sciences — but most consumers want to use a mobile wallet to collect loyalty points and offers rather than for making payments. More
Lithuania-based mobile payments provider Worapay is set to go live in Estonia this month with partner and local businessman Rando Parna, who has acquired a license to operate the technology... More
Isis, the NFC venture set up by US carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, is to get a new name. The move is in response to the growing profile of the Isis militant group. More
Spanish bank Bankia has launched a mobile payments service that uses NFC stickers attached to the back of a customer’s smartphone to make purchases at any contactless POS terminal... More
Seamless has signed up US-based prepaid card provider InComm and the Belgian arm of POS terminal provider Ingenico as partners for its Seqr mobile payment solution... More
Almost 70% of Americans believe that EMV chip technology makes their debit and credit card transactions more secure, with only 5% feeling chip cards make their transactions less secure, a new survey released by NXP Semiconductors has revealed. More
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Chinese online payments giant Alipay is testing a mobile app based virtual credit card service called Xinren Bao that features customised credit limits based on a user’s shopping history and a 38-day interest-free period on all purchases, Marbridge Consulting reports... More
Retailer-owned mobile payments provider Yapital is testing the use of fingerprint biometrics to replace PIN entry when paying by smartphone... More
Paying with a smartphone would win over 31% of all those asked if they then only needed to have their smartphone with them and could do without a purse or wallet, a new survey conducted for retailer-owned mobile payments provider Yapital by TNS Infratest has found. More
CaixaBank has become the first in Europe to launch a Visa-branded wristband that allows users to make contactless payments at locations equipped with a contactless POS terminal. More
Japan-based payments network JCB is to begin testing a contactless payments service in Tokyo this month, ahead of a commercial rollout in 2015. “In addition to plastic cards, J/Speedy can be issued for a wide variety of devices, including mobile and wearable devices,” JCB says. More
A ‘buy now’ button has been seen on Twitter, leading to speculation the social media giant is trialling a new ‘in-tweet’ ecommerce service, Re/code says... More
London’s Oval Cricket Ground is to test a mobile ordering and payment solution that lets fans use their mobile phone to place an order and complete payment without having to leave their seat. The service is already in use at Durham County Cricket Club and is also to be tested by the UK’s Everyman Cinema chain. More
Russian Standard Bank has partnered with Samsung and MasterCard to offer NFC payments to consumers with a Galaxy S4 or Note 3 mobile phone. The service is the second embedded NFC payments service to be introduced by Samsung and MasterCard and follows the launch of a similar service by Commonwealth Bank of Australia in December 2013. More
