Nearly 21m (20.87m) personal and 3.51m corporate digital yuan wallets have so far been issued during China’s ongoing trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed... More
China could be ready to officially launch the digital yuan as a fully operational central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, according to reports in the Chinese media... More
South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the US is planning to upgrade or replace its SEPTA Key transit card system in order to offer passengers on its bus, trolley and rail networks in the Greater Philadelphia region a wider range of transit ticketing options... More
Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) is to become the first financial institution in the US state to let its customers use Utah’s mobile driving licence (mDL) as a legal form of identification for all banking transactions... More
Moviegoers at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema in the Polish city of Wroclaw can now pay for their tickets with their eyes via a biometric payments system that makes use of iris recognition technology... More
Chinese consumers can now open digital yuan wallets using different levels of customer identification depending on the transaction and balance limits they require and can activate wallets “with the lowest authority” with just their mobile phone number in line with the “principle of controllable anonymity”, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed... More
The European Union has confirmed that it plans to introduce an EU-wide digital wallet that will enable all EU citizens to link their national digital identity with other personal attributes including their driving licence, diplomas and bank account details and store them on their mobile phone... More
Passengers travelling on three inter-regional bus routes in South Korea’s Gyeonggi-do province can now test a ‘tagless’ fare payment system that enables them to pay for their tickets without needing to tap an onboard contactless reader with their transit card or smartphone... More
Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank is to begin testing its e-krona central bank digital currency (CBDC) with external partners to assess how a digital krona would operate within a real world banking and payments infrastructure... More
Consumers in the Cologne-Bonn area of Germany will soon be able to receive digital receipts on their NFC smartphone for in-store purchases at merchants taking part in a pilot of a new digital receipt service being launched by the Sparkasse group of savings banks... More
The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan has published a public consultation document as part of its plans to develop and pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Staff at the Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS) are to trial a virtual commercial payment card that will enable them to make corporate purchases including software licences, subscriptions and travel passes without needing to use their personal credit or debit cards and then claim reimbursement... More
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have unveiled prototype hardware devices that support the use of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of different use cases... More
The US state of Utah is to pilot a mobile driving licence (mDL) that will enable drivers to provide digital proof of their identity, licence status and age by tapping their mobile device on an NFC reader or by showing a QR code for scanning... More
Customers of all six state-owned Chinese banks can now apply for test versions of the banks’ digital yuan wallets as the country rolls out the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme in the city of Changsha... More
Visitors to the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida can now test a contactless biometric system that enables them to gain entry to the attraction by verifying their identity with their face... More
Jamaica is to pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the course of this year and begin rolling it out in 2022, the country’s minister of finance Nigel Clarke has revealed during a budget speech... More
Passengers travelling on Metrolinx’s Union Pearson (UP) Express airport rail link are the first in the Canadian city of Toronto to trial an open payment system that enables them to pay their fares with a contactless credit card or mobile wallet, without needing to buy a Presto transit card or e-ticket... More
Customers at more than 50 branches of Russian food retail group X5’s Perekrestok supermarkets can now pay for their purchases at self-checkout devices “with a glance” using a biometric payments solution that uses 3D face recognition technology... More
Some 8,500 consumers in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been given e-wallets containing digital yuan as part of the country’s ongoing pilot scheme for its central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More