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
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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
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
Swiss mobile payments provider to roll out cross-border payments in 2022
Swiss consumers with a Twint digital wallet will be able to make digital payments with their credit card or directly from their bank account in other European countries from 2022, the Swiss mobile payments service says... More
Moscow Metro lets passengers top up their Troika transit card from their mobile banking app
Passengers travelling on Moscow Metro can now buy and top up a Troika transit card directly from within their mobile banking app... More
Digital passport for thoroughbred racehorses rolls out in UK and Ireland
Owners, trainers and breeders of thoroughbred racehorses in the UK and Ireland will soon be able to receive a digital passport that will allow them to confirm the identity of a horse and store information about its health, welfare, movements and ownership... More
EU to lay out plans for Europe-wide digital identity wallet
The European Union is set to reveal plans for a digital wallet that will enable citizens in all 27 member states to store identity documents such as their driving licence, payment details and passwords and to access a range of private and public services with a single online ID, according to a report in the Financial Times... More
Clipper rolls out support for Google Pay for transit fares in San Francisco Bay Area
Android users can now upload their Clipper transit card to Google Pay, reload their card balance and pay for their fares on 24 transit systems across the San Francisco Bay Area of the USA with their smartphone... More
Accor to let hotel guests access their rooms with their smartphone
Guests staying at hotels owned by France-based hospitality giant Accor will soon be able to open their rooms and access other hotel facilities contactlessly using a digital key uploaded to their smartphone on check-in... More
Fiat Chrysler to let drivers order and pay for Grubhub food deliveries from their cars
Owners of Fiat Chrysler vehicles equipped with the manufacturer’s Uconnect Market connected services platform will soon be able to order and pay for their favourite food and beverages from restaurants in 4,000 US cities via an app embedded in their in-vehicle touchscreen... More
UK to trial digital Covid-19 immunity and vaccination passports
UK residents are to take part in a pilot of a digital immunity and vaccination passport that enables them to use their mobile phone to disclose their Covid-19 test results or vaccination status without revealing their identity... More
Korea to let banks add food ordering services to mobile apps
Banks in South Korea will be able to add a wide range of non-financial services to their mobile apps, including food ordering and delivery, following changes to the country’s financial regulatory system due to be introduced by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in July 2021... More
Los Angeles to let residents add vaccination certificates to mobile wallets
Residents of Los Angeles County in the USA will be able to verify that they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and receive a reminder to have a second dose of the vaccine via a digital record they can store in their Apple Wallet or “competing Google platform”... More
RTC adds cash-to-mobile feature for contactless mobile ticketing on Las Vegas buses
Passengers on Regional Transport Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) buses in Las Vegas can now use cash to buy travel passes and top up their account to make contactless fare payments with the transit authority’s mobile ticketing app... More
French city lets passengers pay bus and tram fares via NFC and BLE tags
Passengers using buses and trams on the Fil Bleu public transport network in the French city of Tours can now pay their fares by scanning either an on-board NFC tag with their Android device or a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tag with an iOS smartphone... More
Tyne and Wear Metro launches mobile ticketing on Android phones
Passengers on the Metro light railway network in Tyne and Wear in the north-east of England can now buy and store electronic tickets on their Android smartphone without needing a physical ticket or a smart transit card... More
Facebook digital currency researchers publish ultra high-speed payments paper
A digital transaction settlement system being developed by researchers working on Facebook’s Novi cryptocurrency digital wallet app could support up to 160,000 transactions per second, “about 7x the peak transaction rate of the Visa payments network”, according to a paper published by the research team... More
Nearly a quarter of US Starbucks orders are now made from its mobile app
Nearly one in four transactions at Starbucks outlets in the US are now being made using the company’s mobile app, the coffee chain reports. The company’s 2020 fiscal results show that the percentage of mobile orders made using the Starbucks app has increased over the year More
Visa lets merchants in 15 countries accept contactless payments on standard NFC phones
Merchants in more than 15 countries around the world are now able to use Android NFC smartphones and tablets to accept contactless payments with no additional hardware required, Visa has announced... More
TreeCard launches wooden contactless debit card
Consumers in the USA and “a number of EU markets” can now apply for a debit card made from wood that also comes in a digital form and can be used to make contactless and mobile payments as well as cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs... More