Consumers in Japan can now add their Visa credit or debit cards to Apple Pay and use them to make in-store, in-app and online payments from their iPhone or Apple Watch... More
Contactless
Irish banks plan Yippay mobile payments joint venture to compete with new entrants
Bank of Ireland, AIB, Permanent TSB and KBC Ireland are planning to launch a mobile payments service known as Yippay “to rival disruptors such as Revolut”, according to the Irish Independent... More
Bahamas links digital currency to bank accounts
Consumers in the Bahamas will be able to use mobile wallets integrated with the country’s Sand Dollar “like an ATM” and transfer the central bank digital currency to their wallet directly from their bank account, the governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, John Rolle, has said... More
Consumers to get option to personalise their digital payment cards
Consumers may soon be able to personalise the payment cards stored in their digital wallets by uploading their own pictures or images of their favourite sports teams, charities and retail brands to them... More
More than 90% of consumers worldwide will consider using digital payments in the next year, Mastercard predicts
More than nine in 10 consumers (93%) will consider using digital payment methods including contactless, QR code and biometric payments as well as cryptocurrency transactions in the next year, according to a Mastercard survey... More
Mastercard in talks with PBOC over support for cross-border digital yuan transactions
Mastercard is seeking a role in the development of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) by supporting the use of the digital yuan for cross-border transactions and its conversion to and from foreign currencies, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP)... More
Apple Pay goes live in Israel
Apple Pay has rolled out in Israel with support for Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards issued by nine major Israeli banks and credit card companies, according to local media outlets... More
Finnish cities roll out open loop contactless fare payments
Passengers using selected ferries and trams in the Finnish capital of Helsinki and buses in the city of Tampere can now make EMV contactless fare payments using an open loop ticketing platform being rolled out by Helsinki Regional Transport and Tampere’s Nysse regional transit authority... More
Google Pay to add transit payments to home screen
Google Pay users in the US will soon be able to access mobile transit ticketing services including fare payments and transit card management directly from the app’s home screen on their smartphone or other mobile device... More
Porsche lets owners in Australia find, access and pay for parking from their vehicle
Porsche owners in Australia can now be guided to, gain entry to and make contactless payment for off-street parking in the city of Melbourne directly from their in-vehicle touchscreen using the luxury vehicle manufacturer’s smart parking app... More
Chinese banks unveil CBDC hardware prototypes for multiple use cases
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have unveiled prototype hardware devices that support the use of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of different use cases... More
Norges Bank to test technical solutions for Norwegian CBDC
Norway’s central bank Norges Bank is to test “various technical solutions for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the next two years”, the bank’s CBDC working group has announced in its third project report... More
Transport for Ireland adds NFC transit card top-ups for iPhone users
Passengers on public transportation services in Ireland can now use an NFC-enabled iPhone to top up their Leap transit card using Transport for Ireland’s (TfI) Leap Card top-up app... More
Russian retail giant adds biometric payments to let customers ‘pay with a glance’
Customers at superstores, supermarkets and convenience and cosmetics stores owned by Russian retail group Magnit can now authenticate contactless payments at self-checkout devices using pay-with-a-glance technology... More
Crédit Agricole issues biometric payment cards in France
Customers of Crédit Agricole can now use their fingerprint to authenticate contactless payments made with a biometric deferred debit card issued by the French bank... More
Amazon expands pay by palm technology to Whole Foods Market store
Customers at a Whole Foods Market store in Seattle in the USA can now gain access to the supermarket and pay for their purchases using Amazon’s contactless palm scanning device... More
German savings banks roll out contactless card acceptance on standard NFC phones
Merchants in Germany can now accept PIN-free contactless payments on their Android NFC smartphone without needing extra acceptance technology using a software point of sale (sPOS) solution launched by the Sparkasse group of savings banks... More
UK Treasury and Bank of England launch CBDC taskforce to explore digital currency options
The UK Treasury and the Bank of England have established a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce to coordinate research into the benefits, risks and practicalities of introducing a digital pound... More
Octopus to let Hong Kong cardholders pay for transit fares in mainland China
Octopus users in Hong Kong will soon be able to pay for public transport fares in more than 300 cities in mainland China with a new physical transit card to be launched “by the end of this year or early next year”, according to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report... More
Opera chooses Antelop to enable NFC digital card payments for Dify users
PARTNER NEWS: Opera has selected Antelop Solutions as a long-term digital payments partner, enabling users of its new Dify in-browser cashback and digital wallet app to activate a Dify digital debit card in Google Pay and use it to make NFC payments in stores... More