The number of Chinese consumers making in-store mobile payments more than doubled last year and almost half of all smartphone users in the country will be making proximity mobile payments by 2020, according to research released by eMarketer... More
Retail
Mahindra Comviva wins GTB innovation award
PARTNER NEWS: Mobile financial solutions firm Mahindra Comviva and mobile network operator Airtel Tanzania have jointly won the Global Telecom Business (GTB) Innovation Award for Airtel Money Tap Tap NFC Payments in the customer service category... More
Tencent to ramp up WeChat Pay in Japan
Chinese internet giant Tencent is working to roll out its WeChat Pay mobile payment service to 10,000 Japanese stores by the end of 2016... More
Mobvoi to add NFC payments to smartwatches in China
Owners of Mobvoi’s Ticwatch will soon be able to make NFC payments at contactless terminals across China as the result of a partnership between the smartwatch maker, China UnionPay (CUP) and Oberthur Technologies (OT). More
Ant Financial takes Alipay to Germany with Concardis
Chinese tourists will soon be able to make payments at 210,000 store locations in Germany serviced by payment provider Concardis using Ant Financial’s Alipay mobile payment platform. The move marks the service’s launch into Europe after the company unveiled its expansion plans at Money20/20 Europe in April 2016. More
Samsung Pay makes European debut in Spain
Samsung Pay has begun rolling out across Spain, making it the first European market where the mobile payment service is available. The service has launched with support from CaixaBank and ImaginBank and will also be available for customers of Abanca and Banco Sabadell “soon”. More
Contactless on the increase in Canada
The value of contactless payments made by Canadian consumers increased by around C$30bn (US$22.8bn) in 2015, on the back of more than 1.2bn transactions, Technology Strategies International reveals... More
Square offers weekly payment plan for contactless readers
Square’s contactless chip reader can now be paid for in instalments of US$1 per week for 60 weeks... More
Boku and Verteda take carrier billing to UK venues
UK consumers can now pay for food and drinks at sports and entertainment venues serviced by IT solutions provider Verteda and charge their purchases to their mobile phone bill. The company has integrated the service into its Qjacker mobile payments app through direct carrier billing provider Boku. More
Canadian banks go live with Apple Pay
Customers of Canada’s TD Bank, Scotiabank and BMO Bank of Montreal can now make in-store and in-app payments using Apple Pay... More
Survey reports on use of Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay in the US
More than a quarter of US consumers (27%) with an eligible smartphone have used Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay, according to research released by Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG)... More
UOB to lift NFC mobile payment limit in Singapore
Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) will lift the S$100 (US$73) contactless transaction limit for NFC mobile payments at all of its point-of-sale terminals by the end of next year... More
Visa Europe records contactless growth across the continent
Some 3bn contactless transactions were made across Europe on Visa cards and payment-enabled devices in the year to 30 April 2016, growing from 143m transactions a month in April 2015 to 360m in April 2016... More
Samsung to ease online payments with new app
Samsung is to launch a smartphone app in South Korea that will make it easier for consumers to make online payments using Samsung Pay, ETNews reports... More
MasterCard collaborates on speeding up EMV checkout
MasterCard is working with other payment networks, acquirers and processors to develop a standard that will reduce EMV checkout times... More
US startup raises funds for multipurpose smart wallet
US startup Spendwallet is raising funds on Indiegogo for an electronic wallet device that can store up to 20 magnetic stripe cards and will let the owner make payments at the point of sale using the company’s self-developed Magnetic Flux Emulation (MFE) technology. More
BLE beacons to deliver 1.6bn coupons a year by 2020
Almost 1.6bn coupons will be delivered annually to consumers via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon technology by 2020, Juniper Research forecasts... More
LG Pay to launch in September
LG is expected to launch its LG Pay mobile payment service in September, according to ETNews... More
Analyst predicts exceptional growth for Apple Pay due to secure element approach
Apple Pay will experience greater success than Android Pay and will “grow exceptionally based on a belief that Apple Pay using a Secure Enclave/secure element inside of iOS has an advantage over Android Pay’s host card emulation (HCE) in that it’s more secure, with a similar user experience,” according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster... More
Wells Fargo to add NFC-based mobile payments to banking app
Customers of Wells Fargo Bank across the US will soon be able to make NFC-based mobile payments and ATM withdrawals with a tap of their phone using the Wells Fargo Wallet, a mobile payment service expected to launch “later this summer”... More