EMVCo has developed a QR Payment Mark that can be used by merchants to indicate that they accept mobile payments which conform to the standards body’s QR Code payment specifications... More
EMVCo releases QR Payment Mark
Archive for May 2018
Bank of America adds AI assistant to mobile banking app
Bank of America delivers first widely available AI–driven virtual financial assistant — Bank of America — “Bank of America is rolling out the first widely available AI-driven virtual assistant of its kind in financial services, Erica, to its 25 million mobile clients… Erica is designed to learn from clients’ behaviours over time, helping them accomplish simple to complex tasks within the mobile banking app with easy-to-follow prompts. Clients can interact with Erica any way they choose, including texting, talking or tapping options on their screen.”
US Bank to test connected fleet car payments
Mastercard and US Bank Voyager put fleet managers in the driver’s seat — Mastercard — “Mastercard today unveiled a new service to automatically integrate fuel and maintenance data from a connected car’s dashboard into the payment process… US Bank will be the first to pilot these new features, giving fleet managers the flexibility, visibility and control to manage day-to-day expenses.”
PayPal to acquire iZettle for in-store payments push
PayPal agrees to acquire iZettle — PayPal — “Upon closing, we will gain in-store capabilities in 11 markets, near-term in-store expansion opportunities into other existing PayPal markets, and the acceleration of omnichannel commerce solutions in Australia, UK and US.”
Amazon uses QR codes to let Prime members access discounts in Whole Foods Market stores
Amazon serves up new benefit for Prime members at Whole Foods Market — Amazon — “Prime members can now get an additional 10% off sale items, typically hundreds of products throughout the store, plus weekly deep discounts on select best-selling items… To get started, customers download the Whole Foods Market app, sign in with their Amazon account and then scan the app’s Prime Code at checkout. Or, customers can opt in to use their phone number to save at checkout.”
ST releases Raspberry Pi driver for NFC readers
Linux demo of ST25R3911B for Raspberry Pi — STMicroelectronics — PARTNER NEWS — “The STSW-ST25R009 provides a complete software solution to enable fast integration of NFC functionality into Linux based systems using the ST25R3911B/ST25R391x high performance NFC frontends… The package contains a sample application to detect different types of NFC tags and mobile phones supporting P2P.”
Japanese bank to pilot digital currency for in-store payments
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the world’s fifth largest bank, is to invite 100,000 customers to participate in a pilot of MUFG Coin, a blockchain-based digital currency that customers will be able to use to make mobile payments in stores... More
PrivatBank brings Apple Pay to Ukraine
“The arrival of the world leading mobile payment technology on the Ukrainian market is a decisive stimulus for large and small businesses to actively switch to cashless technology,” says Alexei Shaban, retail business manager at PrivatBank, the first Ukrainian bank to make Apple Pay available to its customers... More
Researchers combine fingerprint and vein verification in single sensor
Why your smartphone may soon start scanning your veins — Edith Cowan University — “The new technology involves a single sensor that combines image data (vein) and minutiae-based data (fingerprint) to improve recognition exponentially. These different extraction approaches add complexity for anyone attempting to duplicate the system.”
Visa CEO discusses how a single online buy button will work
Visa Inc at JP Morgan TMT Conference — Visa — “Some kind of buy button, yet to be defined and branded, it’ll open up a wallet, probably a card pre-selected — they can overwrite that — select their product and confirm their purchase… There’s some — a lot of — meetings going on, on things like branding and what will the actual button look like.”
Apple patents face vein identification system
Vein imaging using detection of pulsed radiation — USPTO — “Vein identification systems that are known in the art transmit infrared illumination through the user’s hand, and capture a resulting image in which the veins within the hand appear as dark or bright lines due to variations in the captured infrared intensity… In the disclosed embodiments, an optical transmitter, such as a laser, emits a pulse or sequence of pulses of infrared radiation toward an area containing a body surface of a living subject, such as the skin of the subject’s face.”
Walmart cancels its scan-and-go payments pilot due to ‘low adoption’
Phasing out the checkout line: Retailers race to make shopping more seamless — CBC — “Walmart has abandoned mobile scan-and-go shopping at its US stores… The retailer rolled out the test project in about 120 US locations starting this past August. Walmart spokesperson Ragan Dickens said in an interview this week that scan and go had a ‘low adoption rate’.”
Challenger banks add location-based payments to mobile apps
UK banks are trying out location-based P2P payments — Tearsheet — “On Friday, Revolut introduced a feature called ‘Near Me’ which lets its customers find other Revolut customers using the same feature and send them money without knowing their contact details. On Monday, Monzo rolled out a capability called ‘Nearby Friends’… When the user opens Nearby Friends, Monzo generates a token representing the user through its API, which is then sent to Google Nearby through Bluetooth on the user’s device to ‘broadcast’ it to other Monzo apps within a 90-foot radius.”
French banks to add P2P transfers to Paylib online and in-store mobile payments service
Paylib wants to become France’s Swiss Army payment knife — Les Echos (translation) — “Following the introduction of online and in-store payments, customers of the six partner banks will be able to make person-to-person money transfers by the summer. BNP Paribas launched the new ‘Paylib entre amis’ [Paylib between friends] service last Wednesday while Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, BPCE, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and La Banque Postale will follow in the coming weeks.”
Facebook to develop its own cryptocurrency?
Facebook plans to create its own cryptocurrency — Cheddar — “Facebook is exploring the creation of its own cryptocurrency, a virtual token that would allow its billions of users around the world to make electronic payments, people familiar with Facebook’s plans told Cheddar.”
Amazon to open cashierless stores in Chicago and San Francisco
Amazon will open checkout-free stores in Chicago and San Francisco — Engadget — “Amazon has posted job listings for store managers in both Chicago and San Francisco, making it clear where the automated stores are headed next… Amazon has a building permit for a store in Chicago’s Loop, while a San Francisco Chronicle report claimed that a store would open near Union Square. An earlier Recode scoop asserted that Amazon would open as many as six more stores in 2018, with one possibly coming to Los Angeles.”
National Bank to pilot biometric payment cards in Kuwait
National Bank of Kuwait and Mastercard make GCC debut of pioneering biometric solutions — Zawya — “NBK customers will be the first in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region to experience Mastercard’s Identity Check online authentication solution, while a pilot program for an innovative biometric card with an embedded fingerprint sensor will be a first for the GCC.”
Okey Co explains how its contactless keyfob can unlock new NFC business opportunities
PARTNER NEWS: A presentation that sets out the potential of the Okey — a standalone, multifunction NFC keyfob that can store multiple contactless payment, transit, loyalty and identity cards — is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Wells Fargo makes it easier for customers to access popular mobile payments services
Wells Fargo reimagines mobile experience with ‘Pay with Wells Fargo’ — Wells Fargo — “Today Wells Fargo & Company announced Pay with Wells Fargo, which will bring to the app’s home screen an option for customers to conveniently select their most commonly used payment features like Zelle, mobile wallets, card-free ATM access code and transfers, even before signing into the app… Longer-term features of Pay with Wells Fargo will be customized based on customers’ personal usage patterns. Customers also will have the ability to customize the highlighted features themselves.”
Google Pay update to provide users with a single view of all their transactions
Google Pay’s app adds boarding passes, tickets, P2P payments and more — Techcrunch — “In an upcoming update of the Google Pay app, we’re going to allow you to manage all the payment methods in your Google account — not just the payment methods that you used to pay in-store… And even better, we’re going to provide you with a holistic view of all your transactions — whether they be on Google apps and services, such as Play and YouTube, whether they be with third-party merchants, such as Walgreens and Uber, or whether they’re transactions you’ve made to friends and families via our peer-to-peer service.”