The volume of contactless payments in Europe is forecast to rise almost nine-fold to 12.2bn in 2020 compared to 2014 and account for 13% of all card payments, according to research released by RBR. The number of contactless cards issued is also expected to treble from 2014 to just short of 700m by 2020 — representing more than 40% of the total regional card base. More
Poland
Blik signs up 1.3m Poles for mobile payments
Some 1.3m Polish consumers are now using Blik, the mobile payments service backed by six of the country’s banks that lets customers make in-store and online payments, withdraw cash from ATMs and send P2P transfers with their mobile phones... More
Three in four Poles aware of NFC mobile payments
Nearly three quarters of Polish consumers (74%) are aware of NFC mobile payments and 4% are using them, research conducted by ARC Rynek i Opinia for SIA reveals... More
uBirds seeks funding for strap that brings NFC to any watch
Warsaw-based start-up uBirds has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a leather strap that can be fitted onto any standard watch to add a range of smartwatch-like capabilities... 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
Europeans make more than 1bn Visa contactless transactions in 12 months
More than one billion contactless transactions worth in excess of €12.6bn have been made by Visa cardholders across Europe in the past 12 months, research from Visa Europe has found, with its customers spending €1.6bn using their contactless cards in March 2015 alone — a three-fold increase compared to the same month in 2014... More
One in five Europeans expect to make daily mobile payments by 2020
One in five Europeans expects to use their mobile phone to make payments on a daily basis by 2020, growing from the one in ten who do so already today, research from Visa Europe has found... More
Nine Polish banks to launch HCE mobile payments
Nine Polish banks are to launch host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments services using Visa’s cloud-based payment specifications “from early this year,” allowing their customers to make contactless payments using NFC-enabled Android smartphones... More
Polish banks join up for launch of Blik mobile payments service
The National Bank of Poland has given the go-ahead for the launch of Blik, a mobile payments service backed by six Polish banks that lets customers make payments in stores and online, withdraw cash from ATMs and send P2P transfers with their mobile phones... More
Worapay raises funds
Lithuania-based mobile wallet platform provider Worapay has raised €400,000 in new funding from Israel’s Entree Capital, Verslo Zinios reports... More
Visa Inc abandons digital wallet ambitions, Visa Europe to continue investing
Visa Inc is replacing its V.me digital wallet service with Visa Checkout, a new payment service that enables consumers in the US, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device, in “just a few clicks”... More
Estonia to get Worapay mobile payments
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
Polish ATMs get biometrics
Poland’s Planet Cash shared ATM network is to allow users to withdraw cash with finger vein biometrics, network operator ITCard has announced... More
Orange Poland adds debit cards to NFC platform
Orange Poland has launched NFC Pass, a new service that builds on its existing Orange Cash platform to enable customers to make debit card payments using their NFC phone... More
Clear Channel to take NFC advertising global
Clear Channel Outdoor is to equip 75,000 out-of-home advertising sites in 23 countries around the world with its Connect mobile advertising platform, allowing consumers to interact with brands via NFC tags, QR codes and, in Latin America, via SMS... More
Alior Bank offers NFC in Poland
Poland’s Alior Bank has joined Eurobank, Getin Bank, Noble Bank, Raiffeisen Polbank and mBank in offering T-Mobile’s MyWallet NFC payments service to its customers... More
Krakow to get NFC ticketing
Passengers using public transport services in Poland’s second city will soon be able to buy their tickets using NFC as a result of a programme developed by Krakow’s public transport commission, mobile services provider SkyCash Poland and carrier Orange... More
Eurobank offers NFC payments in Poland
Poland’s Eurobank has begun offering its customers the ability to pay with NFC using T-Mobile’s MyWallet service... More
Wroclaw restaurant tries NFC table tents
Local NFC specialist NFC Group has implemented NFC table stands and placed NFC stickers on doors in an Indian restaurant in Wroclaw, Poland... More
Trevica picks Cardtek TSM platform
MasterCard-owned payments processor Trevica has selected Cardtek Group’s TSMXpert platform to offer mobile payment solutions to European banks and service providers... More