PARTNER NEWS: Transaction technology provider Carta Worldwide has hired Elizabeth “Buffy” Duke as its vice president of business development... More
Payments veteran Buffy Duke joins Carta
Mobile wallet
O2 buys out Weve partners and drops mobile payment plans
O2, one of the three UK mobile network operators that formed the mobile commerce joint venture Weve three years ago, has bought out partners EE and Vodafone to operate the brand as a wholly-owned subsidiary — and has confirmed to NFC World that it has abandoned Weve’s mobile payment ambitions... More
MCX confirms it will launch CurrentC this summer in a “mid-sized market”
Retailer owned mobile payments consortium MCX has confirmed to NFC World that it will launch its CurrentC mobile wallet in an unspecified mid-sized US market soon, following the announcement that founder member Best Buy will begin to accept rival mobile payments service Apple Pay in its stores later this year... More
Sabadell HCE wallet to go live in July
Spain’s Banco Sabadell is to make its HCE-based mobile payments service, developed in partnership with MasterCard, available to customers in July... More
Europeans back banks for mobile payments
Some 185m Europeans will use a mobile payment app this year, up 51% on 2014, a survey of 14,000 consumers for ING has revealed, and respondents say they are far more likely to use apps associated with their bank for mobile payments (59%) over ‘named groups’ such as Apple or Google (39%)... More
New Zealand NFC wallet venture Semble goes live
Close to one million New Zealanders now have the ability to make NFC payments with the nationwide launch of Semble, a SIM-based mobile wallet introduced by two New Zealand banks, three carriers and payments network Paymark... More
ANZ to add HCE payments to mobile banking app
ANZ Bank New Zealand is to add NFC mobile payments to its popular goMoney mobile banking app later this year... More
PayPal explains why it’s buying mobile wallet provider Paydiant
“What Paydiant has is a clarity of focus on mobile and how large merchants need to utilise mobile to connect with their customers — they’re a small company doing that very successfully with some really cool brands,” Anuj Nayar, senior director of global initiatives at PayPal, has told NFC World as the payment giant prepares to complete its acquisition of the payments platform provider for a reported US$280m... More
Softcard to close down on 31 March
The Softcard mobile wallet service is to close down altogether at the end of March 2015 in the wake of a deal between Google and the three US carriers that founded the NFC payments venture... More
PayPal to buy MCX supplier Paydiant
Paypal is to acquire Paydiant, a white label mobile payments specialist and developer of a platform that allows retailers to incorporate payment, loyalty and offers functionality into their own apps... More
Google ‘to release Android Pay API in May’
Google is working on an Android Pay API that will be “built from the ground up” for Android developers and makes use of host card emulation, “a source close to the matter” has told Ars Technica... More
Chase discusses Apple Pay and its own mobile wallet plans
More than a million JPMorgan Chase cards have now been activated for use on Apple Pay since the mobile payment service launched last year, the bank has revealed, and 69% of the activated cards are credit cards... More
Neiman Marcus rolls out QR payments
Luxury fashion retailer Neiman Marcus has launched a mobile wallet in partnership with Capital One to let its customers make in-store payments using their mobile phone and a preloaded credit card... More
Berg Insight reports on NFC POS terminal growth
An estimated 9.5m NFC-ready point-of-sale (POS) terminals were shipped worldwide in 2014, research from Berg Insight has revealed, and the company forecasts that the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 28.4% from 21.4m in 2014 to 74.9m in 2019... More
Samsung confirms mobile wallet ambitions with LoopPay deal
Samsung Electronics has announced it is to buy LoopPay, the startup that has developed a way for mobile payments to be made at standard magnetic stripe card terminals... More
Rabobank launches embedded NFC payments service
Customers of Dutch financial institution Rabobank with a Samsung Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 3 can now use a mobile wallet app that works with the secure element embedded in their mobile device to make NFC payments, check balances, store loyalty cards and redeem vouchers... More
USA Technologies reveals secret of success for Apple Pay branding
“Certification work” with Apple was all that was needed to add 200,000 vending and other self-service machines supplied over the last five years to the list of Apple Pay acceptance points, USA Technologies (USAT) has told NFC World+... More
BBVA joins Apple Pay
BBVA Compass cardholders in the US can now add their cards to Apple Pay as the bank has become the latest to join more than 60 banks in supporting the mobile payments service... More
DCR wins award for HCE prepaid payments service
PARTNER NEWS: DCR’s truTap Mobile Wallet, powered by Carta Worldwide’s host card emulation (HCE) technology, has been named the “Gotta-Have Mobile App” in Paybefore’s annual awards for excellence in the worldwide prepaid, mobile and emerging payments industry... More
NXP CEO: China will be next major NFC payments market
Chip maker NXP will focus on the “significant” Chinese market for mobile wallets, the firm’s CEO has said, as the company revealed a 40% increase in sales for its emerging ID business in a fourth quarter earnings call... More