Indian consumers can now make payments to merchants and to friends and family using Chat and Pay, a messaging service built into the main FreeCharge mobile wallet app... More
Archive for March 2016
Two billion smartphones to come with fingerprint sensors by 2021
The global biometrics market will reach more than US$30bn by 2021, representing a 118% increase from 2015, according to a new forecast from ABI Research... More
Sberbank enables cardless cash withdrawals in Kazakhstan
Customers of Sberbank Kazakhstan can now withdraw cash without a card at any of the 900 Sberbank ATMs across the country that have been integrated with OpenWay’s Way4 Cash technology... More
Google to launch Android Pay in the UK in the “next few months”
Google has announced that it is to launch its Android Pay mobile payment service in the UK within the “next few months.” The service will launch with support from MasterCard, Visa and eight UK financial institutions. Barclays, one of the UK’s “big four” banks and an NFC mobile payments pioneer, is a notable absence from the list. More
Indosat Ooredoo to launch NFC payments in Indonesia
Telecoms provider Indosat Ooredoo is to launch an NFC-based mobile payment service in Indonesia next month, Detik iNet reports... More
Huawei teams up with China UnionPay to roll out NFC mobile payments
Handset maker Huawei has partnered with bank card association China UnionPay for the roll out of Huawei Pay, an NFC-based mobile payment service that makes use of tokenization technology and is expected to be available on a wide range of Huawei handsets. More
Santander to offer voice-activated mobile banking
Santander customers in the UK with an Apple iOS device will soon be able to use their voice to interact with their SmartBank mobile banking app in order to make payments, retrieve information such as how much they have spent and perform queries on specific transactions... More
ABN Amro lets customers update debit card settings via mobile
Customers of Dutch banking group ABN Amro can now change the settings on their debit cards via its mobile banking app... More
Lufthansa uses Bluetooth beacons to promote upgrades to passengers
German airline Lufthansa is using Bluetooth beacons installed across Munich Airport to push special offers to passengers and enable them to use their mobile phone to book and buy access to its business lounge as well as purchase upgrades from economy class to business class. More
Apple unveils iPhone SE with Apple Pay and Touch ID
Apple has announced a new, entry level iPhone that includes “an NFC radio and a secure element”, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and support for Apple Pay... More
Visa Europe launches ‘Cashfree and Proud’ campaign
Visa Europe has enlisted the help of UK actors Brian Blessed and Joanna Lumley to promote contactless payments through a ‘Cashfree and Proud’ campaign that will run from March to May... More
One in four Norwegians use P2P payments app Vipps
A quarter of Norway’s population is now using Vipps, a P2P mobile payment solution launched by financial services group DNB and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in May 2015... More
Apple Pay adds US and Chinese banks
Apple has added another 48 banks and credit unions to its list of Apple Pay supporting financial institutions in the US and a further three banks in China, “notably including Ally Bank, one of the last major national US banks that had not supported the mobile wallet technology,” Macnn reports... More
MobiKwik lets mobile wallet users find local merchants
Indian mobile wallet service MobiKwik has added a new feature to its app that lets users search for locations where the service can be used to make in-store payments... More
Digital payments to increase 20% in 2016
Consumers will spend more than US$3.6trn using online, mobile and contactless payments services this year, up 20% from US$3trn in 2015, according to Juniper Research... More
Jiffy reports 300,000 P2P payments users
More than 300,000 Italians have registered to use P2P payment service Jiffy since it was launched by payment processor SIA in October 2014... More
Central bank calls for access to cash to be a legal right in Sweden
Access to cash should become a legal right for Swedish consumers and banks should have a duty placed on them to provide cash services as a basic feature of payment accounts, Sweden’s central bank has said... More
Swatch to focus on mass market smartwatches
Luxury watchmaker Swatch will focus its smartwatch activities on its plastic Swatch brand before considering the technology for its pricier models... More
NFC Forum adds cloud-based connectivity to P2P spec
The NFC Forum has added the ability to use the cloud to establish connections between two NFC devices in a new candidate version of Connection Handover, the technical specification that covers the way in which NFC devices can establish a connection using alternative carriers, such as Bluetooth or WiFi... More
German debit cards move towards NFC
Vodafone Germany has demonstrated at CeBIT 2016 the first NFC mobile payment transaction made with a Girocard — the most common debit card in the country— stored in a Vodafone Wallet... More