An APK teardown conducted by XDA reveals that Google plans to add the ability to make payments directly through its Google Home voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant... More
Archive for January 2017
Japanese bank plans new biometrics firm
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is planning to establish a company that provides biometric authentication services together with a “major Japanese IT company and an Irish company as early as this spring”, The Japan News reports... More
Boon launches in France for Apple Pay users
France has become the first eurozone country in which consumers with iOS devices can use Wirecard’s Boon service to make purchases with Apple Pay, by adding a virtual Boon card to the mobile payment service... More
Mobile marketplace offers African farmers promise of richer, cashless harvest
Thousands of small-scale farmers across East Africa will soon be using their feature phones to buy, sell and receive payments for their goods through a mobile app and SMS service developed by Mastercard... More
US bank backs top five mobile payment services
US bank Fifth Third has announced it will support the five major mobile payment services — Android Pay, Apple Pay, Masterpass, Microsoft Wallet and Samsung Pay... More
Mobile payments market worth $3,338bn by 2022
The global mobile payments market will reach US$3,388bn by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.4%, Allied Market Research predicts... More
Apple Pay offers Chinese New Year discounts
Apple Pay users in Singapore are being offered a string of discounts when using the mobile payment service to celebrate the Chinese New Year... More
Facebook gets Spanish e-money licence
Facebook has obtained a licence to manage money transfers between users in Spain, according to El Pais... More
One in 10 UK consumers have used mobile payments, survey reveals
More than one in 10 (11%) of UK consumers have made an in-store mobile payment and do so occasionally, with 2% doing so “wherever possible”, research from price comparison service uSwitch reveals... More
25% of UK card payments now contactless
A quarter of all UK card transactions in November 2016 were made using contactless debit and credit cards, The UK Cards Association reveals... More
NFC included in Nintendo Switch controller
Detachable Joy-Con controllers for Nintendo’s long-awaited new games console Switch will include an NFC reader and writer to exchange data with Amiibo toys, Venturebeat reports... More
US bank to upgrade all ATMs for mobile withdrawals
US bank Wells Fargo expects to be the first bank to fully convert all its ATMs to support a mobile withdrawals service, allowing customers to get cash by entering an eight-digit code generated by the bank’s app plus their PIN into the machine, CNN Money reports... More
Australian bank offers instant digital card replacement
Customers of Australian bank ANZ who report their card as lost or stolen will be issued with a replacement card instantly through Apple Pay or Android Pay... More
Mastercard sizes up data sharing
A patent filed by Mastercard shows how it could use data from purchase histories to infer information about the cardholder that could be used, subject to privacy controls, to let merchants tailor pricing of products and services to the individual... More
US consumers to use loyalty points as currency for in-store payments
US consumers will soon be able to purchase goods using loyalty points from multiple programs through Verifone Points Redemption, a new service designed for merchants which connects to third party loyalty programs and alerts shoppers when they have enough points available to complete a payment... More
Palm vein authentication system launched for mobile devices
A palm vein authentication system compact enough to be used in tablets and other mobile devices as “dependable as current optical units” has been unveiled by Japanese electronics firm Fujitsu... More
Secure element security added to web applications
GlobalPlatform has released Web API for Accessing Secure Elements v1.0, a standardised communications interface between web applications and secure elements (SEs) that will enable sensitive data from online applications to be stored and processed in a secure, isolated environment... More
Gemalto secures mobile payments and loyalty pilot
PARTNER NEWS: Retail giant Carrefour is piloting a mobile payments and loyalty service in France, secured with Gemalto’s Mobile Protector platform, that allows customers to validate payments with a PIN code or their fingerprint, receive and redeem coupons and access loyalty programs... More
Samsung Pay to get AI assistant?
Samsung is to add a virtual assistant called Bixby to Samsung Pay, a Samsung Pay Beta page seen by Galaxy Club reveals... More
PayPal extends NFC payments with Discover
US consumers will be able to make NFC mobile payments using PayPal at the point of sale wherever Discover is accepted, and use their Discover Cashback Bonus to pay at online and mobile merchants that accept PayPal... More