Australian carrier Optus has made its NFC mobile payment service available to prepaid customers, following its launch to postpaid customers in November 2014... More
Australia
MasterCard to add biometric security to online transactions in 2016
MasterCard has unveiled MasterCard Identity Check, a suite of solutions that make use of biometrics and one-time passwords delivered via SMS to secure online mobile transactions... More
Three in four Android users would use an NFC payments service
More than three quarters of Android users (78%) would use a service similar to Apple Pay if it became available to them, a survey conducted by Helixion has found... More
Australian parliament calls for contactless opt-in
An Australian parliamentary committee is recommending that financial institutions give customers the option to disable contactless payment features... More
PayPal One Touch expansion
PayPal has extended its One Touch mobile payments solution to 13 new markets: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey... More
Apple Pay fees ‘sticking point’ for Australian banks
Australia’s largest banks are reportedly in dispute with Apple over Apple Pay interchange fees... More
Commonwealth Bank adds loyalty to mobile app
Commonwealth Bank has added a loyalty feature to its mobile banking app that also offers HCE payments, allowing users to store loyalty cards and redeem them at the checkout with their NFC phone or by scanning the loyalty card barcode... More
Jobseekers offered head start on new vacancies with a tap of NFC phone
Jobseekers in Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK could soon be able to get a head start on new vacancies by tapping their NFC phone against signs, posters and window stickers placed in shopping centres and business locations, thanks to a partnership between NFC and contactless platform provider Tapit and mobile and social recruitment app Workible... More
MasterCard token platform close to Australia launch
MasterCard’s token platform MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) could soon be rolled out across Australia following its launch in the US in September 2014... More
Visa signs up 2,300 financial institutions for Visa Token Service
More than 2,300 financial institutions and banking partners have now signed up for Visa’s tokenization service with international expansion set to happen “in the fall”, Visa has revealed during a third quarter earnings call... More
Ferngrove Wines to trial NFC smart bottles in China
Australia’s Ferngrove Wines is to equip smart wine bottles in China with NFC tags to help authenticate individual bottles throughout the supply chain, ensuring they are packaged, shipped, stocked and purchased in their original factory-sealed state... More
One in five Australians make in-store mobile payments
Three in ten Australians plan to use their smartphone for all their digital money and financial needs by 2017 and one in five (17%) are already using their smartphones to make in-store payments, research from lender Fair Go Finance reveals... More
CUA credit union reports rising interest in redi2PAY HCE mobile payments service
The number of customers using CUA’s redi2PAY HCE mobile payments service more than 35 times per month was about three times higher in March 2015 than it was six months earlier, and the number of customers using mobile payments five to 14 times per month was up 63% for the same period, the Australian credit union has revealed... More
40 Adelaide venues install beacons
Forty bars and nightclubs across the Australian city of Adelaide have installed Bluetooth beacons to track visitor attendance and push offers to passers-by using a platform provided by startup Little Birdy... More
Visa Checkout reports 4m customers and 125,000 merchants
More than four million customers have now signed up for Visa Checkout since its launch in July last year, and more than 125,000 merchants are now accepting the online checkout service along with 260 financial institutions globally... More
Australia leads the way for contactless ownership and usage
Two thirds of Australians are now aware they own a contactless payment card and 53% have made a contactless transaction, research released by RFi Group has revealed, taking the country to the top of a leaderboard for both contactless awareness and usage rates... More
AMP Bank adds HCE payments to mobile app
Australia’s AMP Bank has added HCE-based NFC mobile payments to its banking app for Android, allowing AMP Visa debit card holders to make payments with their phone at any contactless terminal... More
Jameson serves up 25,000 NFC stubby holders
Jameson Irish Whiskey is distributing 25,000 NFC bottle holders that allow drinkers to enjoy online content and competitions, to promote its links with an Australian comedy festival. More
Commbank turns on HCE
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is now offering customers with an NFC mobile phone running Android 4.4 KitKat or higher the ability to make mobile payments using host card emulation... More
PayPal readies contactless reader
PayPal is preparing to launch a new version of its PayPal Here card reader that can handle transactions with contactless cards and NFC devices... More