Canadian carrier Rogers has spun off its Suretap NFC mobile wallet service as a separate company, with the brand now operating independently and open to other carriers... More
Canadian carriers sign up for independent Suretap platform
Identity
Intelligent Environments replaces PINs with emoji passcodes
Software provider Intelligent Environments has launched an emoji-only passcode system that lets consumers log into their bank’s mobile app using four emoji characters instead of traditional PINs... More
Google files contact lens authentication patent
Google has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office that describes a contact lens which collects reflected light through sensors to assemble an image of the iris that is then matched against a stored image to authenticate the wearer... More
Brain waves could replace passwords
Brain waves could be used to verify a person’s identity in the future, researchers from Binghamton University have demonstrated in a study published in academic journal Neurocomputing... More
HID Global brings government IDs to mobile
ID card provider HID Global will use its Seos technology platform, which supports both NFC and BLE functionality, to let citizens carry government IDs on smartphones and other mobile devices... More
RBC unveils Android M mobile wallet app
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has developed an app for the Android M Developer Preview that will be used as part of the bank’s RBC Wallet service to let users authenticate themselves using their fingerprint for signing in and making mobile payments... More
1bn biometric banking consumers by 2017
More than 1bn consumers globally will be accessing banking services through biometric systems by 2017 and biometrics will become the predominant method of identification for accessing bank services by 2020, Goode Intelligence predicts... More
Chinese unveil face recognition ATM
Researchers at China’s Tsinghua University and technology company Tzekwan have unveiled an ATM with inbuilt facial recognition features... More
Apple Store purchases get two-step authentication
The Apple Store app for iOS has been updated with two-step authentication, meaning users will now need to enter both a password and a verification code sent to a trusted device before they can complete a purchase... More
India’s ICICI Bank launches voice recognition service
India’s largest private sector bank ICICI Bank has become the first in the country to launch a voice recognition-based service, allowing more than 33 million customers to make banking transactions through the bank’s call centre by authenticating themselves using their voice... More
PayPal adds Touch ID to iOS app
PayPal is letting its iOS mobile app users log in and access “virtually any part” of their PayPal wallet using Apple’s Touch ID... More
NTT Docomo rolls out Fido biometrics platform in Japan
NTT Docomo has become the world’s first mobile network operator (MNO) to deploy Fido authentication throughout its network, allowing it to replace passwords for millions of customers across its services with a range of enhanced authentication methods including both fingerprint- and iris-based biometrics... More
Face++ raises $25m for selfie payments
Face++, the Chinese facial recognition technology startup behind Alibaba’s selfie payments service, has secured an additional $25m in a series B funding round, taking the total raised to $47m... More
Japanese carrier to secure mobile payments with iris scanning phone
Japan’s largest mobile network operator NTT Docomo has unveiled an NFC smartphone that comes equipped with an iris authentication system from Fujitsu that will let owners unlock the device and authenticate mobile payments just by looking at it... More
iPhone 6s to include improved Touch ID
A research note published by KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo has revealed a number of changes planned for Apple’s so-called iPhone 6s, expected to be unveiled in September, including an improved Touch ID sensor which “will improve the Apple Pay experience with faster, more secure readings,” Apple Insider reports... More
First Internet offers Touch ID login
Customers using US-based First Internet Bank’s personal mobile banking application are now able to log in using their fingerprint and Apple’s Touch ID feature... More
Qualcomm and NXP team up for NFC on Snapdragon platforms
Qualcomm Technologies is working with NXP to integrate NXP’s NFC and embedded secure element (eSE) solutions into reference designs for its Snapdragon 800, 600, 400 and 200 processor-based platforms, mobile chipsets which already lie at the heart of more than one billion devices... More
NFC gets top marks for helping Barcelona kids get to school
Six schools in Barcelona are issuing contactless cards to students who use public transport so that parents can track them on their journey to school and be notified when their child has arrived safely... More
Digital Insights adds Touch ID to banking apps
Digital banking solutions provider Digital Insight is to offer Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint verification in the iOS mobile banking applications it supplies to financial institutions later this year... More
SIMalliance: NFC SIM shipments up 69% in 2014
A total of 4.7bn SIMs were shipped in 2014 by members of the SIMalliance, an organisation that represents suppliers responsible for 86% of the global SIM market, including 132m NFC SIMs, up 69% on 2013 and taking the total number of NFC SIMs shipped by alliance members over the past four years to 256m. More