The PCI Security Standards Council has published a flexible modular standard for accepting payments on a smartphone or other commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) mobile device that supports a variety of payment acceptance channels and customer verification methods including software point-of-sale (sPOS) contactless acceptance solutions... More
Mobile payments
Google Wallet arrives on Fitbit devices and expands to 12 more countries
Fitbit users are now able to add Google Wallet to Sense 2 and Versa 4 smartwatches and then use their wearable to make contactless payments in 45 countries, including 7 of the 12 countries where Google Wallet is now available for the first time... More
Ireland takes next step towards rolling out national contactless ticketing system
Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA) is to launch an account-based contactless ticketing solution on Dublin’s buses as a next step towards rolling out an integrated contactless fare payment system across the country’s bus, rail and other transport networks... More
Samsung Wallet goes live in Qatar and South Africa
Samsung Wallet has gone live in Qatar and South Africa, enabling users to store and use their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Google Wallet rolls out in Malaysia
Google Wallet has gone live in Malaysia, enabling users to store and use their credit and debit cards, boarding passes, tickets and other digital credentials on their Android NFC smartphone or Wear OS smartwatch... More
Spanish banks to pilot digital euro for contactless in-store payments
Some 30 banks and payment services providers in Spain, including BBVA, Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, ING, Deutsche Bank and Iberpay, have set up a working group to test the use of a digital euro for contactless in-store payments as well as ecommerce transactions and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers... More
Bank of Korea reports slow transaction processing times in DLT digital currency pilot
The Bank of Korea (BOK) is to review additional central bank digital currency (CBDC) design options after its 10-month experiment to test a retail CBDC based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) revealed “limitations of scalability” such as slow processing times during periods of high transaction volume when compared with a more conventional centralised ledger database, the bank says... More
Contactless mobile payment users to top 1bn globally by 2024
The total number of consumers globally making contactless mobile payments with a smartphone or other NFC-enabled device will exceed one billion for the first time by 2024, rising from 782m in 2022, according to a Juniper Research forecast... More
RCH leverages Dejamobile’s SoftPOS technology to add contactless payments capabilities to merchants’ cash registers
PARTNER NEWS: Italian cash register provider RCH has partnered with digital payments technology provider Dejamobile and international payments platform Market Pay to provide its customers with the ability to accept contactless payments on Android NFC devices... More
Contactless World Congress to explore the future of contactless payments, credentials, ticketing and beyond in 2023
Contactless World Congress will dive deep into the future of contactless payments, ticketing and credentials in 2023 with a series of five live events that explore the very latest innovations in contactless technology from across the world... More
Tesco introduces hybrid stores that combine contactless shopping with traditional checkouts
UK supermarket chain Tesco is to open three hybrid stores that give customers the option of choosing a checkout-free, automated shopping experience, an unattended self-checkout station or a conventional, manned checkout... More
India to begin digital rupee payments pilot ‘within a month’
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun testing a prototype wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) and will launch a pilot programme for a retail digital rupee with merchants and consumers in select locations “within a month”, the central bank says... More
More Nordic consumers now prefer to make mobile payments than use cash for face-to-face transactions
One in ten consumers in the Nordic countries now prefer to make mobile payments at the point of sale, double the number who prefer to use cash (5%), making mobile payments the second most popular payment method in the region for the first time, according to figures from regional payments processor Nets... More
Apple Pay begins to roll out in Kuwait
Apple Pay has gone live in a number of shopping malls in Kuwait prior to a full rollout in the country “soon”, according to media reports... More
Samsung Wallet to expand to 13 more countries
Samsung Wallet is to roll out in Bahrain, Denmark, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, enabling users to store their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Shanghai launches Mobility-as-a-Service app that rewards users for choosing greener travel options
Transportation agencies in Shanghai in China have launched a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) app that enables users to pay for their journeys by bus, ferry and metro services, book taxi rides and find and pay for parking spaces across the city from their smartphone... More
EasyCard lets consumers top up their stored value card via NFC
Consumers in Taiwan can now purchase an upgraded version of the EasyCard stored value smart payments and transit card that they can top up directly from their NFC smartphone without needing to use a reload or top-up machine at a metro station or convenience store... More
ABN Amro trials integrated digital identity and payments app
Consumers hiring bicycles from micromobility provider Swapfiets are the first to be able to sign up for a new service from Dutch bank ABN Amro that enables them to use a single app to create a digital ID and then use it both to sign up and to pay for third-party services... More
UK updates Highway Code to allow drivers to make mobile payments from their vehicle
The UK government has published an updated version of The Highway Code governing the use of public roads that incorporates a clause permitting drivers to make a contactless payment at a contactless payment terminal from their vehicle using their mobile device... More
One in four card payments in Australia are now made using a mobile wallet
A quarter of all debit and credit card transactions made in Australia are now made using a mobile wallet (25%), up from 10% in the March quarter of 2020, according to figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). ... More