The governments of Germany and Spain have signed a memorandum of agreement to cooperate on the design, development and piloting of a cross-border digital identity ecosystem that will enable citizens to verify their identity and access digital services in both countries... More
- Eventbrite brings tap to pay to the events industry
- Biometric card pioneer backs away from payments citing lower-than-expected market uptake
- EU calls for feedback on proposed settlement with Apple over NFC chip access
- Google signs deal to take UPI beyond India
- NFC Forum spells out DPP ambitions in ebook
Belgian railways trial ‘check in check out’ app-based fare payments
Belgian railway operator SNCB is to pilot an automated app-based ticketing system that uses geolocation technology to track a passenger’s journey and then calculates the fare and charges the passenger via the app after that journey is completed... More
Apple rolls out NFC student IDs in Canada and expands to further universities in the US
Students at the University of New Brunswick and Sheridan College will be the first in Canada to be able to store their digital student ID on their iPhone or Apple Watch and use it to gain access to buildings and make purchases this coming academic year, Apple has announced... More
Adelaide to roll out open loop tap-and-pay ticketing across public transport network
Adelaide Metro is to enable passengers to make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card or their tap-and-pay digital wallet on all its bus, train and tram services in the South Australian state capital... More
University of Queensland pilots multimodal subscription-based Mobility-as-a-Service app
Students and staff at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, are trialling a multimodal Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) app that enables them to purchase a fixed-price prepaid mobility plan for unlimited journeys by bus, train, tram and ferry services across South East Queensland... More
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Amazon offers US$10 credit to customers who pay by palm
Amazon is promoting its Amazon One in-store biometric access and payments system by offering customers US$10 credit when they register their palm to gain access to and make payments in stores equipped with the company’s contactless palm scanning technology... More
Moscow Metro launches public biometric ticketing trial
Passengers using Moscow Metro’s Line 4 services can now join a public pilot scheme to test the transport network’s FacePay biometric contactless ticketing system. The system enables passengers to pay their fares at metro station turnstiles using facial recognition technology to verify their identity. More
Australia and England let residents store Covid-19 vaccination certificates in their digital wallet
Residents of Australia can now opt to store a digital vaccination certificate proving that they have been fully inoculated against Covid-19 in either Apple Wallet on an iOS device or in Google Pay on an Android device... More
Australian health insurers let customers make contactless claims from Apple Wallet
Australian consumers can now upload a digital private health insurance card to Apple Wallet and use their iPhone or Apple Watch to make an insurance claim by tapping a healthcare provider’s Health Insurance Claims and Payments Service (HICAPS) terminal... More
Sofia rolls out open loop contactless ticketing on public transport network
Passengers on buses, trams and trolleybuses in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia can now pay their fares by simply tapping their physical contactless credit or debit card or a digital card uploaded to their NFC mobile wallet on an on-board reader... More
Turkish taxis drivers get contactless payments acceptance on NFC Android phones
Taxi drivers in Turkey can now accept contactless payments on their NFC Android smartphone without needing a separate point of sale (POS) terminal or any other additional hardware... More
Swedish sportswear brand adds NFC zippers to enhance customer engagement
Swedish sportswear brand Houdini has added an NFC-enabled zipper pull to its latest One Parka waterproof coat that lets consumers who purchase the garment connect with the brand and access use and care guides, support services and other digital features with a tap of their NFC smartphone... More
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Unspent stored value on Starbucks prepaid cards nears US$1.63bn
Starbucks customers have accumulated a total unspent balance of US$1.628bn on the company’s prepaid physical and digital reward and gift cards, the coffee giant’s 2021 Q3 earnings call has revealed... More
Strasbourg rolls out interoperable NFC ticketing for all Android devices
Owners of Android NFC smartphones can now purchase, store and validate digital tickets and monthly or annual passes for buses, trams and other public transportation services in the French city of Strasbourg on their mobile device... More
Australian public hearing considers case for regulatory controls to ensure payment apps get access to smartphone NFC technology
An Australian parliamentary committee has held a public hearing at which it heard evidence from representatives of leading Australian banks, payment services providers and other financial bodies on regulatory issues including whether companies such as Apple should be mandated to allow third-party payment apps access to a smartphone’s NFC chip. More
Santa Barbara gets fare capped open loop contactless ticketing as California rollout expands
Passengers travelling on express bus services in the Santa Barbara region of the US state of California can now pay their fares by tapping an on-board payment reader with their contactless debit, credit, prepaid card or mobile wallet... More
Estonia’s central bank tests blockchain-powered digital euro solution
Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has tested a blockchain-powered technical solution for the use of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it says is capable of handling more than 300,000 simultaneous payments a second and enables payees to receive a payment in less than two seconds. More
Oman to make it mandatory for all merchants to accept cashless payments
All merchants and other commercial enterprises across the Sultanate of Oman will be obligated to offer customers the option of making cashless payments for goods and services from 1 January 2022... More
Juniper forecasts contactless card transactions will total US$2.5tn globally in 2021
The total value of contactless card transactions worldwide will reach US$2.5tn in 2021, up from US$1.7tn in 2020, Juniper Research predicts. The researchers also forecast that card payments will retain “the majority share of overall contactless transaction values at 79% in 2021”. More
Polish mobile payments service lets users make NFC payments direct from bank account
Consumers in Poland will soon be able to use their Android NFC device to make tokenized contactless payments at the point of sale (POS) directly from their bank account via their mobile banking app without needing a debit or credit card... More