Greece’s Alpha Bank has officially launched its Tap n Pay NFC mobile payment service... More
Visa
Two thirds of UK smartphone owners open to the idea of mobile wallets
Two thirds of UK smartphone owners are open to the idea of using a mobile wallet, according to a survey conducted by Marketing Sciences — but most consumers want to use a mobile wallet to collect loyalty points and offers rather than for making payments... More
CaixaBank launches payments wristband that can be used at any Visa merchant
CaixaBank has become the first in Europe to launch a Visa-branded wristband that allows users to make contactless payments at locations equipped with a contactless POS terminal... More
BBVA launches NFC payments based on Visa HCE specifications
BBVA has become the first bank to launch a commercial NFC payments service that makes use of Visa’s cloud-based payments specifications... More
DeviFi offers NFC and Qi for iOS
DeviceFidelity has introduced a module that can be used by case makers and other accessory providers to add NFC payments and wireless charging functionality to an iOS device... More
Spanish banks and carrier launch mobile offers platform that links discounts to bank cards
Yaap, a joint venture between Spanish banks CaixaBank and Banco Santander and mobile network operator Telefonica, has launched a mobile commerce platform that lets consumers access merchant offers on their mobile device and then redeem them automatically by simply paying for a purchase with a pre-linked debit or credit card... More
French bank card association backs biometric payments
Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB, the French bank card association which pioneered the use of chip cards for payments in the 1980s, expects to enable member banks to issue customers with keyfobs supporting fingerprint payments by the end of this year... More
Banco do Brasil goes NFC
Banco do Brasil has partnered with mobile network operator Oi and Visa to offer NFC mobile payments in Brazil... More
Bendigo Bank launches QR code mobile payments in Australia
Australia’s Bendigo Bank has partnered with Samsung to rollout Redy, a mobile payments service that lets shoppers make payments and receive rewards by scanning a QR code generated by a merchant’s tablet-based POS terminal... More
Barclaycard to introduce contactless payment wristbands
Barclaycard is to make contactless payment wristbands available to anyone with a UK bank account or credit card next year... More
South Shore Line introduces mobile ticketing for Chicago commuters
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) has partnered with mobile ticketing provider Bytemark to provide travellers on the South Shore Line with a way to purchase and store train tickets on their mobile device... More
Groupon lets merchants redeem vouchers via BLE
Prepaid voucher provider Groupon has launched an iPad-based point-of-sale terminal that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to let merchants “instantly recognize their Groupon customers as they enter their business, seamlessly redeem Groupons and save time and money.”... More
Standard Bank rolls out mobile payments to 10,000 merchants in South Africa
Standard Bank, one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups, has launched a service that allows small merchants to accept mobile payments by simply placing a QR code at their point of sale, with no POS terminal required... More
SMEs ready to embrace mPOS
The use of mobile point-of-sale solutions by small businesses in Europe will take off dramatically in 2014, according to a survey of 2,000 SMEs commissioned by Visa Europe... More
TD Canada Trust launches NFC mobile payments with support from all three major carriers
TD Canada Trust, the retail banking arm of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, has become the first in Canada to offer an NFC mobile payment solution that is supported by the country’s three major wireless networks: Bell, Rogers and Telus... More
RBC expands NFC wallet
The Royal Bank of Canada has expanded the functionality and availability of its cloud-based RBC Wallet... More
SIMalliance issues HCE security warning
“Host card emulation is good for the NFC ecosystem as a whole, but remains immature, unstandardised and, relative to secure element based deployments, vulnerable to malicious attack,” says SIM card manufacturer association SIMalliance, which has published an HCE discussion paper called Secure Element Deployment & Host Card Emulation... More
TfL tests NFC for London Underground ticket payments
Transport for London (TfL) is testing payments via NFC phones for use on the tube and the overground rail network and is piloting contactless card payments with some 5,000 volunteers... More
Bank develops NFC suit that lets customers pay by swiping a sleeve
Australia’s Heritage Bank has unveiled prototypes of a suit that comes with an embedded NFC chip and antenna to allow its wearer to make NFC payments at contactless POS terminals by simply swiping their sleeve... More
PayPal takes another look at NFC
The arrival of host card emulation (HCE) has led to a re-think of online payments giant PayPal’s famously anti-NFC point of view, company president David Marcus has revealed... More