Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK have developed a hybrid technique for “robustly” integrating solid NFC chips with printed circuits on flexible materials such as fabric and paper that could “extend the effective use of flexible electronics in applications such as smart tags, IoT wearables, robotics, ultrathin displays, healthcare and so on” by enabling the development of active tags... More
United Kingdom
Nearly a third of all payments in the UK are now contactless
Nearly one in three of all payments in the UK were made using contactless cards or with a smartphone or smart watch in 2021 (32%), a rise of 36% compared with transaction volumes in 2020, according to figures from UK Finance... More
Norway, Finland and New Zealand top list of countries closest to becoming cashless
Norway, Finland and New Zealand are the three countries closest to becoming cashless societies, followed by Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, Singapore and the Netherlands, according to research published by Merchant Machine... More
Samsung includes NFC, UWB and MST contactless technologies in foldable phones and wearables
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro all offer NFC functionality, while some also include ultra wideband (UWB) capabilities and the phone maker’s own MST magnetic stripe emulation technology... More
More than 160,000 stores worldwide will support contactless mobile self-scan shopping by 2027
The number of stores worldwide that enable customers to self-scan their purchases on their own smartphone or a device provided by the merchant rose by 10,000 during 2021 to reach a total of 46,000, but that total is set to more than triple and exceed 161,000 globally by 2027, according to Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
Survey finds four in ten businesses are planning to upgrade to a mobile-ready contactless access control solution
More than four in ten businesses are planning to adopt a mobile-ready contactless access control solution (42%) while just under one in four have already upgraded to a mobile-ready system (24%), a survey of professionals from across a range of industries worldwide reveals... More
UK government to implement contactless digital border
The UK government is to begin testing technologies and greater use of biometric innovations for automated border identity verification checks as part of its newly published plans to develop, test and implement a “contactless digital border” at airports, ports and other entry points to the country... 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
Manchester’s Metrolink drops one-day travel passes from mobile ticketing app to cut fare evasion
Passengers travelling on the Metrolink tram network in the UK city of Manchester can no longer purchase a one-day travel pass on Transport for Greater Manchester’s Get Me There mobile ticketing app and are instead being encouraged to use the network’s open loop contactless fare payment system that incorporates daily and weekly fare capping... More
More than one in three UK consumers now use a digital wallet
Just over a third of UK consumers now have a digital wallet (34%), but that proportion rises to more than two thirds among 18-34 year olds (64%) compared with just 18% among 54-65 year olds, a survey has found... More
Google begins rolling out its new multifunction mobile wallet to 39 countries
Google has begun rolling out a multipurpose digital wallet that enables users to store, use and present digital credentials such as identity cards and health passes as well as payment cards, transit and event tickets and hotel keys in 39 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia... More
Visa survey identifies capped contactless fare payments as key driver of more frequent public transportation usage
More than nine in ten public transport users worldwide expect transit services to offer contactless fare payment options (91%) and just under half prefer to make contactless payments for their transit fares (45%), according to Visa’s 2022 Future of Urban mobility survey... More
Leeds United rolls out NFC contactless ticketing
Fans of Leeds United Football Club in England will be able to gain entry to home games at Elland Road stadium during the 2022-23 season by scanning a digital NFC season pass or match ticket stored on their smartphone or smart watch at stadium turnstiles... More
RBR: More than 12,000 checkout-free contactless stores to be in operation by 2027
The number of checkout-free contactless stores around the world increased from 87 in 2020 to 252 in 2021 and will rise by more than 90% a year to exceed 12,000 by the end of 2027, according to Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
Samsung combines payments, digital keys, boarding passes and IDs in single mobile wallet app
Samsung Galaxy users in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK can now store their digital payment, loyalty and membership cards as well as digital keys, boarding passes and Covid-19 vaccination certificates on their smartphone using the Samsung Wallet app... More
Ireland tops survey of contactless and cashless payments usage across 14 markets
Nearly two-thirds of consumers in Ireland now make contactless payments with a mobile phone, smartwatch or other device (65%) at least once a month compared with an average of just over half of consumers in other countries (55%), a survey has found... More
UK cinemas roll out support for contactless IDs
UK cinema-goers who need to verify their age in order to purchase tickets for age-restricted films can now do so using a digital ID card stored on their Android or iOS smartphone that can be authenticated using a QR code... 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
PayPal lets merchants in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands accept contactless payments on NFC smartphones
Merchants in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands can now accept contactless payments on a standard Android NFC smartphone or other mobile device using a software point of sale (sPOS) solution being rolled out by PayPal... More
Uber to integrate train, coach and plane tickets into UK app
Uber is to enable users in the UK to purchase train, coach and plane tickets for long-distance journeys within its mobile app as part of a plan to create a ‘superapp’ that offers “a one-stop shop for travel”... More