The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has expanded its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot to include a contactless ‘hard wallet’ and NFC wearables that enable consumers to make in-store and transit fare payments with their digital yuan... More
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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
UK to increase contactless spending limit to £100?
The UK could increase the limit for contactless transactions from £45 (US$61) to £100 (US$136), according to reports in the British press... More
Google Pay lets users in India get personal insights into their 2020 spending
Google Pay users in India can now access personalised information about their spending habits in 2020 using a new feature integrated into the payment service’s app... More
Omny contactless fare payment system goes live across the whole of New York City
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has completed the rollout of its Omny contactless fare payment system across the whole of the city, enabling passengers to pay for their tickets with their contactless bank card or mobile wallet at all 472 subway stations and on 5,800 buses across the city... More
Dubai beauty parlour introduces smart manicures that include an NFC chip
Customers of the Lanour Beauty Lounge in Dubai’s World Trade Centre can now have an NFC chip attached to their fingernail as part of a manicure, enabling them to store personal data and transfer it to NFC-enabled devices with a tap of their chip-bearing ‘smart nail’... 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
ABI forecasts 2.5m biometric payment cards in 2021
As many as 2.5m biometric payment cards will be issued during 2021, according to an ABI Research forecast, with more than 20 biometric payment card pilots already underway across the globe... More
Visa proposes CBDC protocol that lets consumers exchange digital cash via Bluetooth or NFC
Visa has published a research paper exploring an offline payment system (OPS) protocol for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) that would enable users to make digital payments to other users even when both sender and recipient are temporarily offline or unable to connect to a bank, payment network or other intermediary... More
Moscow Metro lets Google Pay users pay fares without unlocking their phones
Android NFC phone users travelling on the Moscow Metro system in the Russian capital can now pay for their tickets directly from Google Pay by tapping a turnstile equipped with a contactless fare terminal — without having to first unlock their smartphone... More
Israel begins rollout of national account-based mobile ticketing system
Passengers on bus services across Israel can now use a single mobile app to get travel information, plan their journeys and pay for their fares using an account-based ticketing system that charges their account at the end of the month for all the journeys they have made... 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
NFC Forum launches device certification program designed to improve the NFC user experience
The NFC Forum has introduced a product certification program that improves the user experience for NFC device owners by enabling manufacturers of smartphones and other NFC-enabled devices to prove that their products fully conform to a wide range of contactless transport, payments and access control standards... More
Queensland begins first pilot of regional open loop ticketing system
Passengers travelling on the G:link light rail network on Queensland’s Gold Coast are the first to trial an open loop transportation ticketing system that the Australian state plans to roll out across all forms of public transport in 18 regional centres by 2022... More
Dejamobile gets Visa certification for high value contactless transaction acceptance on standard NFC devices
PARTNER NEWS: Dejamobile has received Visa certification for a solution that enables merchants to be provided with the ability to accept both low and high value contactless transactions on a standard Android NFC smartphone or tablet... More
Italy promotes cashless payments with 10% rebates for shoppers using cards and mobile apps in stores
Consumers in Italy can now receive an automatic 10% refund into their bank account for cashless in-store payments made using a credit, debit or prepaid card or payment app between now and the end of the year — as long as they make at least 10 digital transactions during the period... More
Amsterdam buses and trams to get mobile, contactless and QR payments
Passengers using public transportation in the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam will soon be able to pay their fares using a contactless debit or credit card, an NFC mobile phone or via a QR code... More
Challenger bank to test biometric payment cards in Sweden
Customers of Swedish challenger bank Rocker will soon be able to take part in a proof-of-concept pilot of a biometric debit card that enables them to authenticate contactless in-store payments with their fingerprint... More
Mastercard and MatchMove leverage Tappy technology for tokenized payments on custom wearables
PARTNER NEWS: Mastercard and Singapore-based Banking-as-a-Service provider MatchMove have partnered with Tappy Technologies to make it possible to provide consumers with the ability to add a tokenized Mastercard to a wide range of batteryless wearables... More