Free Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphones preloaded with Samsung Pay are being offered to new credit card customers of Mashreq Bank in the UAE, as the mobile payments service launches there through an early access programme with the bank... More
Archive: News in brief
Chinese third-party payment providers face client cash regulation
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is to ban third-party payment providers, such as Alibaba-owned Alipay, from using their clients’ money, China Daily reports... More
Tesco rolls out mobile payments service across UK
Tesco has made its PayQwiq mobile payments service available in all of its stores across the UK following “positive feedback” from customers during the initial roll out to 524 stores in April 2016... More
Chinese to get cash using face recognition ATMs
Customers of China Merchants Bank will be able to withdraw cash using face recognition technology installed in all of the bank’s ATMs in Shanghai by the end of 2017, South China Morning Post reports... More
Next iPhone to include facial or gesture recognition?
Apple’s next iPhone could include facial or gesture recognition, according to a research note issued to clients by financial services firm Cowen and Company... More
Test for European Central Bank mobile P2P platform
European payment infrastructure provider EBA Clearing has begun testing an instant payment platform unveiled earlier this month by the European Central Bank, that will allow European consumers to make cross-border mobile P2P payments... More
India to rank states on digital transactions
Niti Aayog, an Indian government policy think tank, is producing an index to rank Indian states based on the number of digital transactions made, according to Economic Times... More
HSBC to launch Hong Kong P2P mobile payments app
HSBC is to launch a P2P mobile payments app in Hong Kong early this year that will allow customers of any bank to transfer money using a recipient’s mobile phone number... More
Indian mobile wallet adds healthcare services
Indian consumers can now submit prescriptions, buy medicines, find doctors and book appointments through online pharmacy Easymedico using First Global Data subsidiary Msewa’s VPayQwik mobile wallet... More
Call to ‘digitise Indian rupee’ using blockchain
“The time is ripe” for the adoption of blockchain technology in India, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s research arm which believes the technology has the potential to digitise the country’s fiat currency... More
P2P service expands to Macau
Hong Kong ATM network Jetco has partnered with seven banks in Macau to offer Jetco Pay P2P, the mobile phone number-based transfer service that launched with 12 banks in January 2016... More
GlobalPlatform standardises TEE management
Standards body GlobalPlatform has published a framework detailing how trusted applications hosted on a GlobalPlatform compliant Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) can be remotely and dynamically managed... More
Google to add payments for Home Assistant?
An APK teardown conducted by XDA reveals that Google plans to add the ability to make payments directly through its Google Home voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant... More
Japanese bank plans new biometrics firm
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is planning to establish a company that provides biometric authentication services together with a “major Japanese IT company and an Irish company as early as this spring”, The Japan News reports... More
Boon launches in France for Apple Pay users
France has become the first eurozone country in which consumers with iOS devices can use Wirecard’s Boon service to make purchases with Apple Pay, by adding a virtual Boon card to the mobile payment service... More
US bank backs top five mobile payment services
US bank Fifth Third has announced it will support the five major mobile payment services — Android Pay, Apple Pay, Masterpass, Microsoft Wallet and Samsung Pay... More
Mobile payments market worth $3,338bn by 2022
The global mobile payments market will reach US$3,388bn by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.4%, Allied Market Research predicts... More
Apple Pay offers Chinese New Year discounts
Apple Pay users in Singapore are being offered a string of discounts when using the mobile payment service to celebrate the Chinese New Year... More
Facebook gets Spanish e-money licence
Facebook has obtained a licence to manage money transfers between users in Spain, according to El Pais... More
25% of UK card payments now contactless
A quarter of all UK card transactions in November 2016 were made using contactless debit and credit cards, The UK Cards Association reveals... More