JCB has launched Tap on Mobile, a contactless payments acceptance solution that uses off-the-shelf Android NFC devices to enable its acquirers to offer “a cost-effective payment solution to their merchants”... More
Mobile payment overtakes contactless cards for young Irish consumers
Impact of Covid-19 on spending behaviour revealed as more Irish consumers using contactless and digital wallets — AIB — “Digital wallet (Apple Pay and Google Pay) spend now accounts for 37% of all in-store transactions by those who are under 25… Contactless using a debit card is the most popular choice of in-store payment method among all age cohorts, except those under 25 where it accounts for 28% of spend.”
Google to add support for Bluetooth mobile payments?
Leaked screenshots of a new Google Pay debit card, to be issued by banks partnering with the search engine giant for its planned move into the US banking market, include mention of an option to use a digital version of the card “for Bluetooth mobile payments”... More
Commonwealth Bank reports surge in digital wallet transactions
Digital wallet transactions grew 17% in March 2020, outpacing the average monthly compound growth rate of 6.7% over the past six months, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reports... More
New Zealand raises contactless limit by 150%
New Zealand is to progressively roll out a temporary increase in the country’s contactless transaction limit “over the coming days and weeks” — but customers of two banks will miss out “due to technology constraints” unless they order a new card or make use of mobile payments... More
RBC speeds up bank account opening with NFC passport reading
Royal Bank of Canada has added new features to its mobile app that make it quicker and easier for customers opening a new bank account at a branch to prove their identity... More
Merchants in four European countries to pilot dongle-free contactless payments on Android NFC phones
Merchants in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania are to participate in the pilot of a new mobile POS (mPOS) service that enables contactless payments to be accepted on Android mobile devices “without the need for any additional hardware”... More
TfL signs £2m payments promotion deal with Google Pay
Google has agreed to pay Transport for London (TfL) £2m (US$2.56m) for the right to place Google Pay branding on all of London Underground’s 5,686 tap in/out card readers for a year... More
PayPal fixes Google Pay integration exploit
PayPal says it has now fixed an issue with its Google Pay integration that saw multiple users reporting that unauthorized transactions were appearing in their PayPal history, ZDNet reports... More
Amazon opens cashierless grocery store
Amazon is using the cashierless store technology that powers its Amazon Go convenience stores to provide a checkout-free experience in a full-size grocery store for the first time... More
Android 11 to let users access cards and passes from the lock screen
Google has included Quick Access Wallet, a new feature that lets users quickly access details of all their stored payment cards from their lock screen, in the Android 11 Developer Preview... More
Android 11 to add support for mobile driving licences
The next edition of Android will include support for mobile driving licences and will also provide enhanced biometric verification features, Google has revealed... More
M&S rolls out mobile self-checkout across London
Iconic UK retailer M&S is expanding its mobile self-checkout service to 49 stores across London, following a successful pilot at six stores that saw a Mobile Pay Go transaction being made every three seconds during lunchtime trading... More
Chrome browser adds support for reading and writing NFC tags
The next version of the Chrome web browser for Android will include support for NFC tags, making it possible for developers to integrate tag reading, writing and data exchange directly into websites and web apps to improve the user experience and add new functionality — without the need for a user to download an app... More
Google to revamp its payments products
“We had a tremendously successful launch in India from which we learnt a lot of features, and we are bringing that and we are revamping our payments products globally,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed... More
Corethree lets transportation operators replace prepaid ticket validators with low-cost NFC tags
Transportation ticketing specialist Corethree has introduced a service that enables transit operators to let passengers tap low-cost NFC tags placed on board a bus or other public transport service to activate and validate a prepaid mobile ticket... More
Mercer University reports on iPhone NFC ID adoption
Mobile student ID coming soon to Android devices — The Cluster — “Eight months after the launch of a mobile Bear Card for Apple devices, associate vice president for auxiliary services Ken Boyer said the digital credential will become available for Android devices in the second quarter of 2020… Boyer said 3,198 students, faculty and staff have enabled the digital ID since. The Office of Auxiliary Services anticipates that 2,500 more users will sign up once the Android option is available.”
Google lets developers build their own NFC security keys
Developers and researchers can now make their own Fido-compliant NFC, Bluetooth and USB hardware security keys using new open source software developed by Google... More
Google to sunset Payment Request API
Rethinking Payment Request for iOS Chrome — Google — “The best way to enable more seamless and secure payments on the web is to enable an interoperable ecosystem, where digital wallets can bring their best experience to the web. This means shifting focus to the Payment Handler API, which is an emerging W3C standard that allows third party payment handlers, which can be either native mobile apps or progressive web apps, to integrate with the browser to handle Payment Requests… This shift in focus means that we will eventually sunset Chrome’s built-in ‘basic-card’ payment handler.”
Transport for NSW reports on contactless ticketing adoption
Public transportation users in Sydney, Australia, are now using their contactless debit card, credit card or linked device to make 1.5m journeys a week, Transport for NSW has revealed... More