Seoul to launch its own mobile payment platform: Report — ZDNet — “The municipal government has formed a task force that will work to launch the service, tentatively called S-Pay, which aims to improve payment convenience for citizens and small businesses. The task force will aim to build the system for the platform and cooperate with banks as well as find partnered small businesses… The aim is to lessen commissions paid by businesses when they use credit cards. S-Pay’s system won’t go through credit card companies’ systems.”
Archive for July 2018
NXP supplies contactless and NFC chips for World Cup tickets and match balls
PARTNER NEWS: The contactless chips embedded in 2018 Fifa World Cup tickets and the NFC chips in the competition’s Adidas Telstar 18 official match balls have both been supplied by NXP, the chip maker has revealed... More
Grab unveils plan to turn its mobile wallet into a platform
Grab unveils open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp — Grab — “Grab today announced GrabPlatform, as part of its open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp. Grab will add more highly used everyday services to the Grab app, together with best-in-class partners, who can use GrabPlatform to integrate their services with Grab. … In the span of five months (Jan-May 2018), Grab Financial’s total payment volume more than doubled. It is now the leading mobile payments platform in Southeast Asia.”
WeChat Pay ‘will not seek to offer more local payment wallets’
WeChat Pay to keep overseas focus on outbound tourism instead of offering more local wallets — South China Morning Post — “Tencent’s WeChat Pay said it will not seek to offer more local payment wallets to overseas customers over the next three years and will remain focused on serving outbound Chinese tourists better in popular overseas destinations… ‘In mainland China we have millions of users so we can make WeChat Pay into a successful payments tool… We don’t have many WeChat users in overseas countries so we should accept that it will be hard to develop payment tools for them.’”
Major League Baseball stadiums to introduce biometric payments and ticketing
No more tickets? MLB fans will soon use fingerprints, facial recognition instead — Fox Business — “A tap of the finger will soon replace traditional tickets at baseball stadiums across the country… A pilot program will arrive at select venues later this season… The platform will expand to point-of-sale systems and possibly more teams… Fans will be able to pay for food and validate their age for alcohol purchases using their fingerprint.”
Marriott to let Chinese guests use face recognition to check in to its hotels
Joint venture of Alibaba Group and Marriott International trials facial recognition check-in technology — Marriott International — “The pilot will kick off from July 2018 at two Marriott International properties in China — Hangzhou Marriott Hotel Qianjiang and Sanya Marriott Hotel Dadonghai Bay, with the goal of global rollout across Marriott International’s properties in the future… Chinese guests simply need to scan their IDs, take a photo and input contact details on a self-help machine. The intelligent device will then dispense room key cards after identities and booking information are verified.”
Palm vein biometric payments to be pilot tested in Japanese convenience stores
Aeon and Fujitsu launch field trial of cardless payments using biometric authentication technology — Fujitsu — “Aeon Credit Service and Fujitsu will begin a field trial of a cardless payment system using Fujitsu’s palm vein biometric authentication technology. Starting in September 2018, the trial will take place in selected Ministop convenience stores. This initiative will be Japan’s first example of palm vein authentication-type cardless payments at actual retail stores.”
Apple Pay to launch in Austria?
Apple Pay prepares to go live in Austria — Der Standard (translation) — “Apple Pay is expected to launch in Austria in the coming months, two sources have told Der Standard… Our request for confirmation was referred to Payment Service Austria (PSA), which is conducting the negotiations with Apple for all the Austrian banks… PSA confirmed to Der Standard that they are in negotiation with Apple, but currently cannot say whether and when Apple Pay will go live in Austria.”
PayPal ‘ready to spend $3bn a year on acquisitions’
PayPal to spend $3 billion a year on M&A — Reuters — “PayPal Holdings Inc is on the lookout for further acquisitions following its recent takeover of iZettle, the Swedish fintech startup, for $2.2bn… ‘We have a healthy balance sheet and we are ready to put it to work to buy more companies,’ president and CEO Dan Schulman told Germany’s Handelsblatt… Paypal is ready to invest up to $3bn a year on acquisitions that enable it to acquire specific capabilities, Schulman added.”
Alibaba invests in NFC product authentication for brands
E-commerce giant Alibaba has invested in NFC and RFID specialist Smartrac Technology Group and taken a seat on the company’s board... More
Eight in ten POS terminals to support NFC payments by 2022
Shipments of NFC-ready POS terminals reached 24.7m in 2017 — Berg Insight — “The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and North America, where 90% and 88% respectively of the POS terminals shipped [in 2017] featured NFC. NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide, including Brazil, Turkey and China… More than 78% of the world’s POS terminals will be NFC-ready in 2022, up from 50% in 2017.”
Ant Financial targets South America and Africa for next phase of mobile payments growth
Ant Financial sees huge growth for cashless payments in South America, Africa — South China Morning Post — “Kenny Man, head of international investment for Ant Financial, said over the next five years, emerging markets including those in South America and Africa will be priority for the company’s global partnerships… ‘China has leapfrogged over traditional credit cards to the mobile wallet. That same change will be even more radical and faster in different parts of the world, whereby people will embrace mobile payments,’ Man said.”
Google Pay rolls out support for P2P payments, concert tickets and boarding passes
Do more with Google Pay — Google — “Today, we’re starting to roll out updates that will let you do even more with Google Pay. Here’s a look at what’s new: Pay friends with the Google Pay app; Save concert tickets and boarding passes; Manage your info in one convenient place.”
Russian banks begin rollout of national biometric identity system
Russia’s multi-bank remote customer identification facility, which has been in beta testing since early 2018, has launched with Know Your Customer (KYC) enrolment points now working at more than 400 banks in 140 cities... More
Samsung pulls support for Samsung Pay from budget smartphones?
Samsung stops loading mobile payment tool on budget phones — Yonhap News — “Samsung Electronics Co recently stopped embedding its mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, in budget smartphones, industry watchers said Sunday, apparently to save costs by excluding the feature, which has been less popular among teens and senior users… ‘As it costs roughly 5,000 won (US$4.50) per device to apply Samsung Pay, (the company) is apparently seeking to cut production costs by excluding the feature,’ an industry watcher said.”
Gaming hardware maker Razer signs up 300,000 mobile payments users in 48 hours
Razer Pay gains 300,000 users in Malaysia within 48 hours — Razer — “Within 48 hours from the launch of Razer Pay on 4 July 2018, over 300,000 users in Malaysia downloaded and signed up for the Razer e-wallet app designed for youth and millennials… Also within the same 48 hours, over 11,000 transactions were made by first-time Razer Pay users at Berjaya Group stores (such as 7-Eleven and Starbucks).”
Handelsbanken pilots waterproof payments wristbands
Handelsbanken, BankAxept and Evry launch contactless payment from micro bank cards in wristbands — Evry — “This micro bank card makes paying for small purchases quicker and simpler than any other solution currently available to customers. You can, for example, have this small waterproof card in a wristband on the beach so you can buy an ice cream as soon as you get out of the water without having to first fetch your wallet or mobile. We therefore think many people will like this solution and will use it on a day-to-day basis.”
DART opens up its transit ticketing app to private transportation operators
Dallas transit embraces Uber, Lyft and other mobility options — GovTech.com — “Dallas transit riders can do much more than purchase bus or train tickets with the region’s GoPass app. Riders can now use it to book a ride with Uber or Lyft, and will soon be able to schedule other modes of getting around, such as renting a bike on one of the city’s five bike-share apps.”
Survey finds money saving product recommendations will drive adoption of open banking
Brits cite money saving product recommendations as the biggest incentive to use open banking — Equifax — “Two fifths (40%) of Brits willing to share their bank transaction data with a new lender would do so if it provided them with product recommendations which save them money. Other motivations to share transaction data through open banking include the ability to easily compare products from different financial institutions (36%), being offered tailored incentives for switching to a new provider (34%), and a streamlined process when applying for mortgages (28%) and loans (25%).”
Contactless cards accounted for over half the 2.3bn payment chip cards shipped in 2017
Top smart payment card shipment figures 2017 released by Smart Payment Association — Smart Payment Association — “Data collected by the SPA from its members show 2.3bn payment chip cards were shipped globally in 2017… The 2017 global shipment figures also highlight the escalating popularity of ‘tap and go’ transactions, with contactless payment cards accounting for more than 50% of shipments in most regions, and over 70% in a growing number of territories.”