WeChat Pay users in China can now opt to authenticate payments with their palm at merchants that support the payment service’s new biometric WeChat Palm Payment solution... More
WeChat Pay lets Chinese consumers make payments with their palm
China
People’s Bank of China reports on digital yuan uptake
The digital yuan has been used to make 360m transactions worth a total of more than 100bn yuan (US$14bn) since China began piloting the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in December 2019, up from total cumulative transaction values worth 87.6bn yuan (US$12bn) at the end of 2021, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)... More
Samsung Wallet to expand to 13 more countries
Samsung Wallet is to roll out in Bahrain, Denmark, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, enabling users to store their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Shanghai launches Mobility-as-a-Service app that rewards users for choosing greener travel options
Transportation agencies in Shanghai in China have launched a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) app that enables users to pay for their journeys by bus, ferry and metro services, book taxi rides and find and pay for parking spaces across the city from their smartphone... More
Apple integrates transit cards with Maps in iOS 16
Apple iPhone users can now check public transport fares and add transit cards to Wallet as well as check and replenish an existing card balance directly from Maps... More
Chinese tea brand uses NFC tags to prevent counterfeiting and enhance customer experience
Customers purchasing special anniversary gift boxes of Chinese tea brand Halfism’s Fuding white tea can now verify their purchase is genuine, access detailed product information and receive coupons towards future purchases by scanning an NFC tag embedded in the product’s packaging with their NFC smartphone... More
China lets consumers link their bank account to their central bank digital currency app for contactless payments
Chinese consumers in the 23 cities and regions piloting the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) can now automatically transfer funds to their digital yuan wallet app whenever their balance runs low, removing the need to manually top up the balance in their e-yuan app... More
NFC Forum reports surge in worldwide use of contactless NFC technology
More than eight in ten consumers have used “an NFC contactless card or mobile payment wallet” (85%) and contactless payment card usage has increased by 30% over the past two years, according to a survey of consumers in nine countries around the world that has been conducted for the NFC Forum... More
Wireless charging mat lets users charge computer mice using NFC
Computer users will soon be able to charge a cable-free mouse using NFC simply by placing it on an NFC wireless charging mouse mat... More
Global chip shortages to continue impacting contactless card delivery into 2023
The delivery of payment cards worldwide will continue to be “severely” impacted by global chip shortages and disruptions in the supply chains of other materials into and throughout 2023, according to a Smart Payment Association (SPA) forecast... More
One in five Chinese consumers have now downloaded China’s digital currency app
Nearly one in five Chinese consumers have downloaded the country’s official digital yuan wallet app (19%), with the majority of them mainly using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for ecommerce purchases (72%) and payments for public services such as transportation (67%), a survey by US research firm Morning Consult has found... More
Global shipments of contactless payment cards top 2bn in 2021
The total number of contactless payment cards and modules shipped globally exceeded 2bn for the first time and accounted for more than three-quarters of the overall total of 2.63bn smart payment card and module shipments during 2021 (76%), according to figures released by the Smart Payment Association (SPA)... More
China pilots NFC devices that combine digital currency payments with student IDs
Students attending Hainan Lu Xun Middle School in the Chinese city of Sanya are the first in the country to trial a digital yuan hard wallet device that enables them to make payments to designated merchants on and off the school’s campus using China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) as well as verify their identity using NFC... More
Global survey finds more than half of consumers continue to prefer using a physical payment card for in-person purchases
More than one in two consumers worldwide prefer using a physical payment card to using cash or a digital wallet when making in-person purchases (53%), a survey has revealed... More
BIS reports on CBDCs in emerging markets
Providing a cash-like digital means of payment, increasing private digital payment services, supporting financial inclusion and achieving greater payment system efficiency are among the key motivations driving initiatives to develop central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in emerging market economies around the world, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report... More
China updates digital yuan wallet app for Apple users
China has issued an update to the pilot version of its digital yuan wallet app for Apple users that is “adapted to the iOS 15.4 system changes” released this week, and has uncovered an attempt to use the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a fraud and money laundering case, according to local media reports... More
China to roll out digital ID cards nationwide
China is to roll out a digital version of its national identity card that residents can store and access on their smartphone across the whole country “this year”, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang has told a press briefing... More
Researchers develop liquid metal microgel ink to print flexible NFC antennas on smart clothing
Researchers at Zhejiang University in China have developed a method of printing flexible electronic circuits onto textiles and other surfaces using recyclable liquid metal microgel (LMM) ink... More
OEM Pay ecommerce transaction volumes to exceed 30.7bn by 2026
Consumers worldwide will use payment services provided by smartphone makers and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make more than 30.7bn ecommerce transactions by 2026, an increase of more than 24.5bn on the 6.1bn predicted for 2022, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
China to roll out next phase of digital yuan testing
China is to launch trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in more cities and regions across the country after rolling out a pilot version of the digital yuan wallet app in January and trialling the CBDC during the Beijing Winter Olympics... More