Public transportation operator First Group has begun a pilot of a new mobile ticketing service that uses host card emulation (HCE) to let customers with an Android NFC phone purchase a bus ticket, provision it to Google Pay and then use their smartphone to tap an on-board contactless reader when they board a bus... More
Contactless
Mastercard to let Indian merchants accept payments on NFC phones
Mastercard to launch solution for smartphones to become contactless acceptance devices — The Hindu BusinessLine — “If your phone has NFC, then it can become a point-of-sale (POS) device. A customer can tap the contactless card on the phone,” said Vikas Saraogi, vice president of acceptance development at Mastercard, adding that it is likely to be launched in India in the first half of next year.”
Gautrain to let passengers use contactless bank cards to pay for trains, buses and car parking
Gautrain, the commuter rail service that connects the South African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, is to let passengers use their contactless bank cards to pay for their journeys by tapping on and off the service from 31 October... More
Apple Pay takes top slot as most popular mobile payments app in the US
Three in ten US smartphone owners now use a mobile payments app to make payments in stores — and Apple Pay is now the most popular with 30.3 million users, according to new research by eMarketer... More
Ahold Delhaize brings mobile self-checkout to US supermarkets
Shoppers at 30 US supermarkets operated by Netherlands-based retail giant Ahold Delhaize will be able to use their mobile phone to scan items as they shop and then self-checkout and pay by the end of this year... More
Queensland tests express ticketing gates for open loop contactless ticketing project
The Australian state of Queensland has begun the first of a series of pilots ahead of the rollout of its A$371m (US$249m) Smart Ticketing system, due to go live in 2022. A one-month pilot of new express ticketing gates is taking place at Brisbane’s Central Station More
Moscow Metro adds support for China UnionPay open loop cards
Travellers in Russia’s capital can now use China UnionPay’s Quickpass contactless cards or an NFC payment app connected to a Quickpass card to pay their fares at 150 Moscow Metro stations, China’s Xinhua news agency reports... More
Invenco picks Cilab to speed up EMV development and testing
PARTNER NEWS: Cilab’s ci230 high-speed testing suite has made it possible for self-service payments leader Invenco to significantly improve the time it takes to develop, test and bring to market EMV-compliant NFC payment terminals for its customers, chief engineer Chris Henry has told NFC World... More
Samsung begins global rollout of mobile POS app that lets merchants accept payments on standard Android phones
Samsung’s NFC phone-based contactless payments acceptance service is now live in Canada and is to be introduced globally “starting in 2020”, the company has announced... More
Google expands support for transit cards on NFC mobile phones
A new deal between Google and Cubic Transportation Systems is set to make it possible for public transport users in a number of major cities around the world to use Google Pay to add their transit card to their NFC mobile phone... More
Japanese merchants report sharp increase in mobile transactions
The introduction of the Japanese government’s Cashless Japan initiative, which provides consumers with cashback incentives when they use a card or mobile phone to make a purchase, has led to a significant upswing in mobile payments adoption, according to reports from a number of merchants and mobile payments providers... More
NatWest begins biometric credit card pilot
The UK’s NatWest bank has begun a three-month pilot of a biometric credit card that enables customers to make contactless transactions of up to £100 (US$123) instead of the usual maximum value of £30 (US$37)... More
French government to include NFC passport reading in digital identity app
A new digital identity service to be introduced by the French government this year will use NFC passport reading to enable citizens to use their smartphone to securely enrol themselves onto the system... More
Samsung Pay adds digital cash card and money transfers
Samsung Pay users in the US are now able to send international money transfers from within the mobile payments app — and use a new Samsung Pay Cash account to make payments in stores and online “right from the Samsung Pay app”... More
German government adds iPhone NFC identity card reading to digital ID app
The German government is using the NFC contactless chip reading capabilities now available on Apple iPhones in a new iOS app that lets citizens securely identify themselves to a range of online service providers by reading their contactless national ID card with their smartphone... More
PSB pilots contactless payments acceptance on NFC phones
Russia’s PSB bank has begun the country’s first pilot of dongle-free contactless payments acceptance on standard Android NFC devices. The new SoftPOS service “allows you to turn any NFC phone running Android 7.0 (and above) into a fully fledged POS terminal,” the bank says. More
Banco Proamerica lets merchants accept contactless payments on NFC phones
Banco Proamerica de Costa Rica has become the first bank in Latin America to let merchants accept contactless payments directly on an Android NFC smartphone, without the need for a separate card acceptance dongle... More
Paris goes live with NFC transit ticketing
Public transportation users in Paris can now buy and store transit tickets and passes on Samsung and Orange NFC phones — and can use any Android phone to buy a ticket and then upload it to their contactless travel card via NFC... More
Capital Metro adds Apple Pay and Google Pay to mobile ticketing app
CapMetro releases new version of its app — Capital Metro — “Earlier this week, Capital Metro rolled out a new, more intuitive version of the CapMetro app. The highly rated app allows customers to pay for their tickets on the go, stay up to date on where their bus is, and map out their entire itinerary. New features include: Easy fare/pass purchasing; Convenient Apple Pay and Google Pay; Quicker pass access; Faster real-time tracking; More robust trip planner.”
Australia Post adds support for iPhone NFC passport reading
Australia Post has added support for iPhone NFC passport reading to its Digital iD service, enabling Australian residents to use their smartphone to register with the government-approved platform and then use their new digital identity for a wide range of applications — from opening a bank account to providing proof of age in a bar... More