Public transportation agency Translink is exploring the use of NFC technology as a replacement for paper timetables at bus stops in the Australian state of Queensland, iTNews reports... More
- Bank of China lets taxi drivers accept central bank digital currency payments on NFC mobile phones
- Juniper forecasts 25% increase in POS terminal transaction values by 2028
- STMicroelectronics launches NFC tag chip with elliptic curve cryptography
- NFC Forum survey finds majority of consumers now prefer making payments with their mobile phone
- Hello, NFCW readers!
EU banks plot pan-European rival to Visa and Mastercard
A group of 20 European banks are working together on “setting up a pan-European payment system to challenge the dominance of Visa, Mastercard and technology companies such as Google and PayPal,” French news agency AFP reports... More
EU antitrust chief examines Apple Pay
Apple Pay “has attracted regulatory scrutiny” from the EU’s Competition Commission due to “several expressions of concern about the US tech giant’s mobile payment service,” Reuters reports... More
DressCode ships contactless payments shirts
UK-based DressCode has begun offering a range of tailored men’s shirts that include a contactless payments module incorporated into the sleeve cuff... More
Brits warm to biometric verification
Just under half of British consumers are ready to completely replace traditional verification methods with biometrics for withdrawing cash (46%), starting their car (45%) and unlocking their front door (41%), according to new research from Equifax... More
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Mastercard partners with Tappy Technologies for wearable payments in Asia
PARTNER NEWS: Mastercard has announced a strategic partnership with Tappy Technologies that will see the two companies working together to let fashion brands easily add contactless payments to watches, jewellery and other accessories. More
CaixaBank uses NFC to let customers check in to flagship bank branch of the future
Spain’s CaixaBank has unveiled ‘all in one’, a 3,000sqm bank branch in Barcelona that showcases the latest financial technology experiences — including NFC check-ins and facial recognition ATMs... More
PayPal and Venmo to move into in-store payments ‘next year’
PayPal is to begin a major new push into in-store payments next year, under both the PayPal and Venmo brands and using both NFC and QR codes, CEO Dan Schulman has told Axios. More
Visa invests in US ultrasonic payments startup
Visa has made “a financial injection” in Lisnr, a US startup that is using ultrasonic data transmission as an alternative to NFC and QR codes for mobile payments... More
Tencent to let visitors to China add their payment cards to WeChat Pay
Tencent, the owner of Chinese mobile payments provider WeChat Pay, has announced that it is working with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and JCB to enable cardholders to connect their payment cards to WeChat Pay and then use the platform to make mobile payments when visiting China... More
Salvation Army adds NFC chips to Red Kettles
The Salvation Army is adding NFC chips to all 25,000 of its iconic Red Kettles for its Christmas 2019 fundraising campaign, enabling shoppers to simply tap their Apple or Android NFC phone to make a donation to the charity... More
Toronto to pilot bank card payments on public transport network
Greater Toronto area public transportation agency Metrolinx “is to start testing an open payment function on its Presto fare-card system as early as next year,” the Toronto Star reports... More
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Discover begins US contactless card rollout
Discover is to begin issuing contactless payment cards “for most” of its Discover It and Discover More cardmembers “who need cards reissued or replaced” this month and, from December, will start issuing contactless cards to new Discover cardholders... More
Alipay lets visitors to China use its mobile payments platform
Tourists visiting China can now use a version of Alipay designed specifically for international travellers to make mobile payments during their trip, Alipay has announced... More
NFC Forum appoints Mike McCamon as its new executive director
“My goal is to guide the NFC Forum in a slight pivot to increase focus on doing whatever is necessary to enable NFC technology to deliver a consistently positive user experience, however it is used,” Mike McCamon, the new executive director of the NFC Forum, has told NFC World. More
Open banking pilot goes live in Korea
A new open banking system which is set to cut transaction fees by 90% has now entered pilot testing, Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has announced. More
India’s bank-led UPI instant payments platform reports 1bn mobile transactions
“UPI has had the fastest acceptance rate not just among payment platforms but digital platforms of any kind,” Dilip Asbe, chief executive officer of the National Payments Corporation of India, has told Bloomberg... More
RBR reports 10% growth in global payment card market
Continued growth in China cements UnionPay as the world’s largest card scheme — RBR — “There were 16bn payment cards in circulation at the end of 2018, up by 10% since a year earlier… The largest scheme worldwide is UnionPay, which accounted for 45% of cards in circulation at the end of 2018… Visa (including Visa, Visa Electron, V Pay and Interlink) made up 20% of the world’s cards… Mastercard (Mastercard, Maestro and Mastercard Electronic) accounts for 16% of all cards.”
Starling Bank lets customers use a single debit card to pay in multiple currencies
Starling Bank launches euro debit card so business and personal customers can spend in two currencies with one card — Starling Bank — “To start using the new Euro Card feature, Starling account holders, both business and personal, must open a euro account… Once it’s open, they can transfer money from their business account to their euro account with a single tap in the app… Their existing debit card can [then] be switched on (in-app) to operate in either pounds or euros, depending on the currency of the transaction.”
Delhi Metro explores biometric transit cards for concessionary fares
Delhi Metro to introduce biometric-based ticketing to offer concessions to students and senior citizens — Techradar — “Delhi Metro is looking to be the first metro line in India to link biometrics to smart cards, in a bid to offer concessions to riders… Once the new biometric-based ticketing system is installed, the smart card will be linked to an individual users’ credentials, and the card will no longer be transferable.”