Santander customers in the UK with an Apple iOS device will soon be able to use their voice to interact with their SmartBank mobile banking app in order to make payments, retrieve information such as how much they have spent and perform queries on specific transactions... More
United Kingdom
Visa Europe launches ‘Cashfree and Proud’ campaign
Visa Europe has enlisted the help of UK actors Brian Blessed and Joanna Lumley to promote contactless payments through a ‘Cashfree and Proud’ campaign that will run from March to May... More
Waitrose trials ‘scan as you shop’ mobile app
Customers at upmarket UK supermarket chain Waitrose are trialling a ‘scan as you shop’ mobile app in three branches that lets them scan product barcodes on their phones as they place goods in their basket... More
Nearly half of top marketers plan to invest in NFC in 2016
Close to half (46%) of the top marketers surveyed for a new location-based marketing report say they plan to invest in NFC this year. 41% plan to invest in Bluetooth beacons, 63% in WiFi and 57% in GPS. More
UK food chain opens cash-free stores
Customers of UK healthy eating chain Tossed will only be able to pay for their orders using a chip card, contactless card or an NFC mobile payment app such as Apple Pay at the two new food outlets the company is opening in London this week. More
Study examines attitudes to contactless payments in the UK, Germany and Spain
More than 90% of British, German and Spanish business leaders interviewed for a survey of attitudes to contactless technology have already invested in contactless projects and expect that 10% of all transactions will be contactless within the next three years, a white paper now available to download from the NFC World+ Knowledge Centre reveals. More
Proxama and Google bring the physical web to London buses
PARTNER NEWS: Commuters across London can now access real-time transport updates and contextually relevant advertising on their mobile phones through MyStop, a physical web service launched by mobile commerce provider Proxama with the support of Google and in partnership with out-of-home advertising provider Exterion Media. More
PowaTag sold to investors
Mobile payments platform PowaTag has been sold to a consortium led by entrepreneur Ben White, administrator Deloitte has confirmed, following news that its parent company Powa Technologies went into administration last month... More
Barclaycard reports increase in UK contactless spending
Contactless spending by Barclaycard’s UK customers in pubs and bars, pharmacies, supermarkets and on commuter transport increased 164% in 2015, the company has revealed. More
MasterCard offers Apple Pay users free travel in London
MasterCard cardholders using Apple Pay can travel for free around London for the next three consecutive Mondays... More
Android Pay to make UK debut in March?
Android Pay will launch in the UK in March, according to The Telegraph... More
Contactless spending in the UK topped £7.75bn in 2015
UK spending on contactless cards rose more than threefold in 2015 to reach £7.75bn (US$10.8bn), research from The UK Cards Association reveals, meaning that total contactless spending last year was more than double that of the preceding seven years combined... More
Trust in Apple as a mobile wallet brand increases in the UK
Trust in Apple as a mobile wallet provider has increased to 25% among UK consumers, nearing the 27% trust shown for MasterCard, market researcher Marketing Sciences reveals... More
Visa Checkout heads to six new markets
Visa is expanding its online payment service to France, India, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK this year, taking the total footprint to 22 markets... More
Powa goes into administration
The company behind the PowaTag mobile payments platform has gone into administration, the Financial Times reports... More
Samsung Pay hits 5m users and is set for global expansion in 2016
Samsung Pay now has approximately five million users in South Korea and the US who have processed more than $500m through the mobile payment service in the first six months since its launch. The service is due to be rolled out in China next month, Samsung has revealed, followed by a global expansion to Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, the UK and Canada later in the year. More
Barclays Pingit adds BBM support
UK users of BlackBerry’s BBM messaging service can now initiate mobile payment transfers to each other using Barclays’ Pingit P2P payment service... More
UK startup unveils smart card that will store multiple bank cards for contactless payments
London-based startup Curve has launched a physical payment card that will let consumers store an “unlimited number” of bank cards and make contactless payments at point-of-sale terminals wherever MasterCard cards are accepted. More
Payfriendz launches P2P messaging app in the UK
UK consumers can now make P2P transfers and pay online using a virtual MasterCard through Payfriendz... More
PayPal partners with Vodafone for NFC payments in Europe
Vodafone Wallet users in Europe will soon be able to make NFC mobile payments at stores, restaurants and other retail locations using their PayPal accounts... More