NFC World’s webinar on NFC security strategies and the roles of the secure element and HCE takes place at 3pm GMT today... More
Strategy
Softcard lays off 60 staff in bid to cut costs
US carrier-owned mobile payments venture Softcard has laid off 60 employees out of an employee base of “hundreds” as part of an effort to “reduce costs and strengthen its business”... More
Join NFC World for a free webinar on NFC security strategies
The next event in NFC World’s free educational webinar series will be held at 15:00 GMT on Tuesday 20 January and will focus on how to select the right security strategy for your NFC service... More
Visa CEO: We may not charge a fee for tokenization
Visa will not charge a fee to card issuers making use of its tokenization service until at least the end of 2015 and may or may not charge a separate fee for the service in the future, CEO Charles Scharf has revealed at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Banking & Financial Services Conference... More
Starbucks claims a 90% share of the US mobile payments market
Starbucks accounted for more than 90% of all mobile transactions in the US last year, the coffee chain’s CEO Howard Schultz has revealed during a fourth quarter earnings call in which he also set out plans to continue to dominate the mobile payments space. More
A million consumers sign up for Apple Pay in first 72 hours
Apple Pay saw more than one million card activations within 72 hours of launch and is already the leading NFC payments player in the US, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed during the Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive event. Cook also outlined future growth plans for the service, including a potential partnership with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba. More
Transcript: eBay CEO John Donahoe discusses the future of PayPal as an independent company
“We want PayPal to be present whenever and wherever consumers want to pay so if that means being in other wallets, if that means being in any existing or other new ecosystems where payment occurs, our desire is to be a payments platform that can enable payments in any of those environments,” says eBay’s CEO. More
Nordstrom to partner Apple on payments?
Upmarket US retailer Nordstrom is in talks to partner with Apple on its new mobile payments service, Bank Innovation reports... More
Analysts report on Apple/Visa partnership
“We think a partnership between Apple and Visa would make strategic sense and believe an announcement could happen as early as this fall,” a team of Pacific Crest Securities analysts has concluded in a new report that follows reports suggesting that two are in talks on mobile payments... More
Zuckerberg: Facebook is working on payments but it will take time to get it right
Facebook is looking into the potential of adding payments capabilities across its business, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has explained during the company’s first earnings call following the hiring of PayPal boss David Marcus to head its messaging business — but the company won’t rush into the market and expects to take several years to fully develop its offering... More
IBM partners with Monitise
IBM and Monitise have formed a strategic alliance designed to help financial institutions deliver cloud-based mobile banking, payments and commerce solutions to their customers... More
Synchrony invests in LoopPay
Synchrony Financial, formerly GE Capital Retail Finance, has made “a strategic investment” in LoopPay, developer of a mobile phone add-on that lets US consumers make payments at merchants equipped with magnetic stripe card terminals... More
Identive to sell off NFC platform
Identive is to seeking a buyer for its Tagtrail NFC tag platform as part of a strategy to simplify its “organisational architecture”... More
Gemalto sees profit in TSM services
“Customers will only have one TSM. It’s like a billing system; if you’re in, it’s harder to get you out rather than if you fight to get in,” says Olivier Piou. “I think that we have a very good momentum.” More
Nintendo to offer NFC game
Nintendo is working on a game that would involve figures or cards that contain NFC tags and make use of the Nintendo Wii U’s NFC capabilities, CEO Satoru Iwata has hinted during an earnings call... More
Bell ID buys Ecebs
Transportation and smart card technology specialist Ecebs has been acquired by Bell ID... More
French carrier SFR to issue own-brand card in move towards NFC payments
Mobile network operator SFR has launched France’s first rechargeable MasterCard PayPass card, in a first step towards issuing its own NFC mobile payment service... More
Vivotech: We’re still in business
Contrary to reports circulating on the internet, citing unnamed “sources”, long-established NFC POS terminal, TSM and software supplier Vivotech is not planning to announce today that it is ceasing operations... More
SAP and Airplus to offer NFC
SAP and business travel payment specialist Airplus International plan to offer NFC mobile payment facilities to business travellers, the enterprise resource planning leader has announced... More
Telia takes Accumulate stake
Mobile operator TeliaSonera has invested in Stockholm-based mobile payments specialist Accumulate, which supplied the technology underpinning the Swedish networks’ WyWallet service announced last week... More