US Department of Agriculture to trial NFC and QR mobile payments for contactless state benefits

US Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards for state benefit transactions

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to run a series of pilot schemes to test the use of mobile payments technology to enable citizens entitled to financial support under its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to receive benefits and make NFC or QR code payments for eligible purchases on their mobile device... More




Huawei Pay goes live in Italy

customer making Huawei Pay digital wallet payment with their smartphone in Italy

Customers of Intesa Sanpaolo bank in Italy with a compatible smartphone can now digitise and add their PagoBancomat payment card to a Huawei Pay digital wallet and use it to make in-store NFC mobile payments... More



Global digital wallet spend to exceed US$12tn in 2026

Juniper Research showing forecast that global digital wallet spend will exceed US$12tn in 2026

The total value of digital wallet transactions globally will exceed US$12tn in 2026, up from US$7.5tn in 2022, and the total number of digital wallet users worldwide will increase from 3.4 billion in 2022 to more than 5.2 billion in 2026, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More



Nearly 100m US consumers will be scanning QR codes by 2025

Graph from eMarketer forecasting that nearly 100m US consumers will be scanning QR codes for multiple use cases by 2025

The number of US consumers who use their smartphone to scan QR codes to make contactless payments and for a wide range of other use cases such as scanning codes in print publications, on restaurant menus and in retail outlets will rise from 83.4 million in 2022 to 99.5 million by 2025, according to an Insider Intelligence forecast... More





Aldi trials first contactless store in continental Europe

Aldi and Shop&Go logos and illo of woman using the contactless store

Supermarket chain Aldi is trialling its first checkout-free contactless store in continental Europe in the Dutch city of Utrecht, enabling customers to enter the store by scanning an app, selecting items from the shelves and then leaving without needing to scan their purchases or use a conventional checkout... More





World Bank reports ‘global surge’ in digital payments during pandemic

World Bank graph showing global surge in digital payments during Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a “global surge” in digital payments with two-thirds of adults worldwide now making or receiving digital payments, rising from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021 in developing economies and from 88% in 2014 to 95% in 2021 in high-income economies, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database... More