Facebook Messenger users across the US are now being prompted to send and request money transfers by an artificial intelligence-based feature that detects when a payment is being discussed in a conversation on the social media platform and responds with a suggestion designed to help the user complete that payment. More
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UAE residents to use NFC for ‘a wide range’ of mobile payments services
Consumers across the United Arab Emirates will soon be able to make payments across a “variety of services” using their mobile phone and Empay, a common mobile payment platform based on NFC. The solution forms part of Dubai’s Smart Government Initiative which aims to transform Dubai into the world’s smartest city. More
WhatsApp to launch UPI-based payments in India?
Messaging app WhatsApp is exploring India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform “among other payment modes” for launching a P2P mobile payment service in the country... More
Twint goes live in Switzerland
Mobile payment service Twint has been launched in Switzerland, marking the completion of the merger between PostFinance’s Twint and financial infrastructure operator SIX’s Paymit platforms... More
NXP adds new NFC chips and sensors to secure the Internet of Things
PARTNER NEWS: NXP has unveiled two new NFC chips and a range of NFC offerings designed to “capitalise on the inherent security and interactive capabilities of NFC for advanced product authentication, integrity assurance and enhanced user engagement across consumer manufactured goods, healthcare, retail and other industries”. More
LG to launch mobile payments service using magnetic communication technology
LG will launch its LG Pay mobile payments service in Korea in June this year using a mobile payment technology that works by “generating a magnetic signal from a mobile device such as a smartphone, and paying it to a general credit card terminal”. More
Samsung Pay goes live across India with support for Paytm and UPI money transfers
Samsung Pay has launched in India with support from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank, with Citibank India support expected “shortly”. The service has also integrated India’s leading mobile wallet Paytm and comes with support for peer-to-peer money transfers through the Indian government’s Unified Payments Interface platform. More
More French banks get HCE payments with Paylib
Customers of French banking group Groupe BPCE’s Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne will be able to make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments from April through the banks’ mobile banking apps and Paylib, an online payment platform supported by France’s main banks... More
Lothian Buses to offer HCE mobile payments for public transport in Scotland
PARTNER NEWS: Scottish commuters using public transport services operated by Lothian Buses will soon be able to pay for their journeys using a host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payment service powered by Nevis Technologies, the joint venture between Scotland’s largest regional transport group Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) and technology provider Rambus... More
Millennials not giving up on cash and checks
Millennials have “one foot firmly planted in both the future and the past” when it comes to mobile payments, a study by Accel and Qualtrics says... More
EcoCash and Mahindra win GSMA best mobile payments solution award
PARTNER NEWS: Zimbabwean mobile payments service EcoCash, powered by Mahindra Comviva’s Mobiquity Money platform, has been named Best Mobile Payment Solution at the Mobile World Congress Glomo Awards... More
More than 500m people now have a mobile money account
Over half a billion mobile money accounts have been registered in 92 countries, with 1.3bn transactions processed in December 2016 alone, research from GSMA reveals... More
Mahindra Comviva adds offers and promotions to mobile money platform
PARTNER NEWS: Mahindra Comviva is making it possible for mobile money operators to increase user engagement with the addition of a new service that enables relevant offers and promotions to be delivered automatically to users’ mobile devices... More
Mastercard adds bar tab feature to Qkr! mobile payments app
Mastercard has unveiled a new feature for its Qkr... More
NXP reveals secure element and NFC solution that speeds transaction times, increases security and supports smaller form factors
PARTNER NEWS: A new embedded secure element and NFC solution from NXP will make it possible for mobile transactions to be conducted at the same speed as contactless card transactions... More
Rambus unveils Unified Payment Platform for mobile payments and loyalty
PARTNER NEWS: Rambus has unveiled a mobile payments platform that will allow retailers to launch mobile payment and loyalty services that securely store and manage a variety of payment cards, as well as gift cards and loyalty points, to enable consumers to pay with credit, points and coupons in a single transaction at the point of sale... More
BNP Paribas launches HCE mobile payments
Customers of French bank BNP Paribas will soon be able to make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments through the bank’s mobile banking app and Paylib, an online payment platform supported by the country’s main banks... More
Visa Token Service to spread across Europe in 2017
The Visa Token Service platform will be available in more than 12 European countries by the end of 2017, Visa has announced... More
Ant Financial invests in Korea and Philippines
Alipay parent company Ant Financial is to invest US$200m in South Korean mobile finance platform Kakao Pay to “expand its online and offline payment coverage”... More
Kenyan banks roll out PesaLink real-time direct P2P mobile payments
Kenya’s new digital payments platform PesaLink, that will enable consumers to make real-time mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments from US$0.10 up to US$9,650 at any time without having to go through intermediaries, is “expected to cut the cost of transactions and transform the way consumers interact with their banks”, the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) says... More