US consumers making purchases at 300,000 self-serve machines across the country will soon receive exclusive offers, promotions and discounts toward future purchases when using Apple Pay to complete a payment... More
Holidaymakers aboard Carnival Corporation cruise ships will soon be given an NFC and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled wearable device, designed by the man behind Disney’s MagicBand, that will let them access a range of next generation services including boarding without checking in, unlocking rooms, accessing personalised entertainment, ordering food and making payments. More
US consumers will soon be able to use their voice to order groceries directly from their fridge with the latest edition of Samsung’s smart connected fridge platform and an updated version of the Groceries by Mastercard mobile app... More
Volkswagen Financial Services AG, the financial services division of German vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen Group, has bought mobile payment platform PayByPhone to “highly increase” its involvement in mobile payments around the world and to establish a “separate business field around the theme of parking”... More
PARTNER NEWS: Customers using mobile financial services firm Mahindra Comviva’s Mobiquity Wallet can now make payments through a chatbot integration designed to assist consumers “through their digital payments journey with their banks”... More
Customers of Ukraine’s PrivatBank can now make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments with their Visa cards, using a new service based on the Visa Token Service (VTS) platform... More
Google has unveiled Android Things, an update to its Internet of Things (IoT) developer platform, which it says will make it “faster and easier to create smart, connected products” powered by Android’s operating system and secured with updates directly from the internet giant... More
The number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors will reach more than 46bn by the year 2021, a 200% increase from 2016, with the global sensors market generating revenues of US$162.36bn on its own by 2019, two research reports from Juniper Research and Frost and Sullivan reveal... More
American Express has unveiled an Add a Card feature to its Amex bot for Messenger, allowing eligible US Consumer and Open card members to add their card and billing information for purchases on Facebook... More
Trade association SIMalliance has published a set of guidelines allowing mobile network operators and service and solution providers to more easily deploy Mobile Connect, which aims to provide a universal phone-based identity and authentication service to consumers worldwide... More
Google has launched its Android Pay mobile payments platform in Japan in collaboration with prepaid card provider Rakuten Edy, allowing consumers to make payments with their compatible devices at more than 470,000 locations accepting Rakuten Edy eMoney... More
Employees of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Card have begun a facial recognition service trial to authenticate purchases, with payments being deducted from their wage at the end of the month... More
Customers at about 2,500 Starbucks locations across mainland China can now make mobile payments using Chinese internet giant Tencent’s WeChat Pay mobile payments platform by scanning a QR code at the point of sale... More
Belgian bank Belfius has joined ING and KBC in the development of a common mobile payment and loyalty platform in Belgium built on ING’s existing Payconiq mobile payments app... More
Another 930,000 European merchants will soon accept Alipay mobile payments at the point of sale, following partnerships between the company and some of Europe’s largest financial institutions and payment service providers... More
The Government of India is working on a mobile app that can be used by shopkeepers and merchants for receiving Aadhaar-authenticated payments, “bypassing credit and debit cards, PIN and password”, Business Standard reports... More
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto has updated its Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) portfolio to include solutions for qualified electronic signatures that enable Trust Service Providers (TSPs) to roll out eIDAS (Electronic Identification and Services) compliant options for “easier and safer” cross-border electronic identification, signing and transactions... More
The group of Australian banks seeking better negotiation powers over the arrival of third party mobile wallets have been denied authorisation to do so in a draft determination by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)... More
McDonald’s South Africa is piloting a mobile payment service at select restaurants in Johannesburg and Cape Town using social messaging app WeChat Africa, enabling customers to complete purchases by presenting QR codes generated by the app at the point of sale... More
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the limit of money that can be kept in a mobile wallet to Rs 20,000 (US$291) from Rs 10,000 (US$145.5) following the withdrawal of Rs 500 (US$7) and Rs 1,000 ($14) notes... More