The Ventra mobile ticketing app introduced by Chicago’s Metra commuter rail service in November 2015 has been used by passengers on more than one million journeys in its first two months... More
USA
Apple Pay adds 51 US banks
Apple has added another 51 banks and credit unions to its list of Apple Pay supporting financial institutions in the US... More
A third of US consumers now use mobile wallets
Nearly a third of US consumers (32%) are currently using a mobile wallet such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, research from Vibes reveals... More
Starbucks sees rise in US mobile transactions
Some 22% of all US transactions in Starbucks during December were made using mobile apps, up from 21% in November 2015, the company’s Kevin Johnson reported during the coffee chain’s first quarter earnings call. “Over one million customers in the US used Mobile Order & Pay capability in the month of December and those customers averaged approximately five mobile orders in the month,” Johnson added... More
Apple Pay leads US mobile payments market
Apple Pay is “overwhelmingly the share leader” in point-of-sale mobile payments across the US despite uptake remaining relatively low, the latest statistics from Piper Jaffray’s Apple Pay adoption tracker show... More
Samsung Pay to let South Koreans pay in China and US
Samsung Pay users in South Korea will soon be able to make payments in China and the US using cards issued by South Korean card companies... More
Samsung Pay to go live in Spain with CaixaBank
Customers of Spain’s CaixaBank will be the first in the country to be able to use Samsung Pay, following a partnership between the bank and Samsung that will see the mobile payment service added as an option to CaixaBank’s host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payment app. More
Rite Aid deploys 4,500 Bluetooth beacons
US pharmacy chain Rite Aid has deployed more than 4,500 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons across its US stores to send personalised messages to its customers... More
Nebraska’s Union Bank & Trust to launch HCE mobile payments
Customers of Union Bank & Trust (UBT) in Nebraska, USA will soon be able to make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments via a mobile app that uses a solution from digital payments provider Prairie Cloudware... More
Radius Bank launches P2P transfer service
Customers of the USA’s Radius Bank can now make peer-to-peer money transfers using the recipient’s email address or mobile number... More
Ford enters the mobile payments market with FordPay
Ford car owners will soon be able to make transactions from their vehicle for services such as car parking using FordPay, a virtual wallet that stores payment details on their mobile phone. The feature is part of the FordPass platform which aims to offer drivers more mobility options and also includes merchant rewards. More
Estimote raises US$10.7m
Beacon manufacturer Estimote has raised US$10.7m in a Series A investment round led by Javelin Venture Partners... More
Google to reward Android Pay users for in-store purchases
Android Pay users across the US will soon be able to earn rewards such as Google Store credit, Google Play Music subscriptions and Chromecast devices when using the mobile payment service for in-store purchases... More
New York subway to get NFC payments by 2018
New Yorkers will soon be able to pay for travel on the subway using an NFC device or contactless card following governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature proposal to redesign and renew 30 stations across the system. The plans also include introducing mobile ticketing systems that will let commuters purchase tickets on their mobile device. More
Mercedes shows NFC keys in Detroit
Mercedes is showing its new E-Class cars with NFC entry for the first time at the Detroit Motor Show this week... More
Nine in ten US Apple Pay users have made an in-store mobile payment
More than nine in ten users of Apple Pay in the US (91%) have now made an in-store payment using a credit card stored on their mobile device and two thirds (67%) have made an in-app transaction, a survey by Phoenix Marketing International has found... More
CES hosts BLE scavenger hunt
Attendees at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas had the chance to participate in a scavenger hunt that used Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons provided by Radius Networks... More
Sacramento commuters to get mobile ticketing
Commuters in the US city of Sacramento will be able to pay for transit tickets and display them on their mobile phones using a RideSacRT mobile app that will be launched this month by Sacramento Regional Transit and mobile payments specialist Passport... More
Samsung Pay heads to Australia, Brazil and Singapore
Samsung is to launch its Samsung Pay mobile payment service in Australia, Brazil and Singapore, the company’s Tim Baxter has announced during a keynote at the CES show in Las Vegas. The service will also be available on the Samsung Gear S2 classic smartwatch from early this year, starting in the US. More
MasterCard and Samsung enable grocery payments at the fridge
US consumers will soon be able to place grocery orders with online grocer FreshDirect and supermarket chain ShopRite by entering the items they wish to purchase into a touchscreen built into Samsung’s new Family Hub refrigerator. More