Pay with the touch of a finger — Nets — “Now, students and visitors at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) can leave their cash, cards and smartphones behind and buy lunch using just their finger… The payment process is very much like other contactless payments but the increased security creates one key difference — even high-value transactions do not require the extra step of PIN entry.”
Sweden
Swedish central bank issues cashless society warning
‘Being cash-free puts us at risk of attack’: Swedes turn against cashlessness — The Guardian — “The Riksbank governor, Stefan Ingves, called for new legislation to secure public control over the payments system, arguing that being able to make and receive payments is a ‘collective good’ like defence, the courts, or public statistics… ‘It should be obvious that Sweden’s preparedness would be weakened if, in a serious crisis or war, we had not decided in advance how households and companies would pay for fuel, supplies and other necessities.’”
One in five Brits to make mobile payments in stores this year
UK: Mobile payments still looking to grab a foothold — eMarketer — “Just over 22% of UK smartphone users will use a phone to pay for goods and services at the point of sale (POS) in 2018… China has the largest mobile proximity payments market in the world, with 77.5% of smartphone users doing so this year. Within Europe, the UK’s smartphone penetration rate will rank behind Norway (23.3%), Sweden (33.8%) and Denmark (38.9%) in 2018.”
Apple Pay goes live in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the UAE
Apple Pay Launches in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and UAE — MacRumors — “In Denmark, Jyske Bank (Visa debit cards only) and Nordea are supporting Apple Pay. In Finland and Sweden, Apple Pay can be used with debit and credit cards from Nordea and ST1. Edenred and N26 support will be coming soon to Finland, while Ticket Rikskuponger will support Apple Pay in Sweden in the near future. In United Arab Emirates, the following banks and cards work with Apple Pay: Emirates Islamic (Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards), Emirates NBD, HSBC (Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards), Mashreq, Rakbank (Mastercard credit, debit, and prepaid cards), Standard Chartered Bank”.
Apple Pay reaches 20 countries, representing 70% of the world’s card transaction volume
Apple Pay now in 20 markets, nabs 90% of all mobile contactless transactions where active — Techcrunch — “Bailey also announced that the service is launching in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the UAE in the next few days, bringing the total number of countries where it is used up to 20. And she said that 4,000 issuers worldwide now work with the wallet… While these may not sound like massive numbers on their own, 20 markets represents a full 70% of the world’s card transaction volume, she noted.”
Apple Pay to go live in Scandinavia next week?
Exclusive: Apple Pay to be launched in Sweden, Finland and Denmark next week — MacPro — “According to several sources familiar with the matter, Apple will launch Apple Pay next week in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. In Sweden, Apple is working with Nordea, a Nordic bank with its headquarters in Sweden. Which bank or banks that will partner with Apple in Denmark and Finland is yet unknown.”
Carrier billing for Apple services spreads to Denmark, Hong Kong, Sweden
Carrier billing for Apple services spreads to Denmark, Hong Kong, Sweden — AppleInsider — “The addition of Denmark, Hong Kong, and Sweden bring the total list of countries supporting carrier billing up to 17, across 29 mobile phone networks. The list of countries does include some major first-world nations, including France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, but the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are notably still absent from the list, among others.”
Swedish commuters validate tickets using NFC microchips implanted in their hands
Commuters travelling on trains run by Swedish transport operator SJ are trialling a system that lets them have their ticket validated using an NFC microchip implanted in their hand... More
Samsung Pay rolls out across Hong Kong following early access launch
Samsung Pay has gone live in Hong Kong with support from Mastercard, Visa and American Express and banks including Bank of China (Hong Kong), Citibank, DahSing Bank, DBS and Standard Chartered. The launch takes the mobile payment service to a total of 17 markets globally and follows its debut in Taiwan earlier this month. More
Samsung Pay goes live in Taiwan with seven banks
Samsung Pay has been launched across Taiwan with support from Visa and Mastercard along with seven major banks including Citibank, Cathay United Bank, E.Sun Commercial Bank, Taishin International Bank, Fubon Bank, Union Bank of Taiwan and Standard Chartered. The service supports iris scan authentication for those with Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices. More
In cashless Sweden, even God now takes collection via an app
In cashless Sweden, even God now takes collection via an app — Bloomberg — “A growing number of Swedish parishes have started taking donations via mobile apps… Most of the country’s bank branches have stopped handling cash; some shops and museums now only accept plastic; and even Stockholm’s homeless have started accepting cards as payment for their magazine.”
Samsung Pay launches in Sweden and the UAE, enters early access in Hong Kong and Switzerland
Samsung Pay has expanded to four additional markets with official launches in Sweden and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and early access launches in Hong Kong and Switzerland. The service has also been made available on Samsung’s Gear S3 smartwatch in Russia, Sweden and the UAE in addition to its availability on the Gear S3 in the US, Singapore and Australia. More
Sweden becomes first Nordic country to get Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay has launched in beta across Sweden, the first Nordic country to see the mobile payment service rolled out, with support from debit and credit card providers Mastercard, Mastercard SAS, Visa, Eurocard, and banks Nordea and SEB... More
Seqr launches P2P payments in 14 European countries
Swedish mobile payments specialist Seamless’ Seqr mobile payment platform has launched a P2P money transfer service that enables users to instantly transfer money to each other “regardless of where they are in the world”, the company says... More
PayPal launches Siri payment requests in 30 countries
PayPal has enabled money transfers via Apple’s Siri voice command function, enabling users with iOS10 devices to make payments by speaking requests... More
Nordea Bank ditches Swipp for MobilePay partnership
Nordea Bank Denmark is ending its support for Swipp, the mobile payment joint venture it formed alongside other Danish banks in 2014, by deciding to “join a partnership” to develop Danske Bank’s MobilePay platform... More
Study shows growing European appetite for mobile payments
Some 54% of European consumers are using a mobile device to make payments for a range of activities in-store, in-app and online, compared to 18% at this time last year, Visa’s 2016 Digital Payments Study has revealed... More
Mastercard brings biometric authentication to 12 European countries
European consumers can now validate online purchases with their fingerprint or face using Mastercard’s biometric authentication service... More
Visa reveals growing Euro interest in biometric authentication
More than three in five European consumers (62%) believe using biometric forms of payment authentication will be faster and easier than passwords and PINs, research by Visa reveals, with 42% believing that the procedure could completely eliminate the need for multiple passwords and PIN codes... More