Apple Pay will soon launch in 16 more countries, including Bulgaria and Croatia — MacRumors — “Mobile banking service Monese has revealed that Apple Pay is also coming soon to its cardholders in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia… Apple Pay is also nearing launch in the Netherlands, Hungary, and Luxembourg for a total of 16 upcoming countries.”
Archive for May 2019
National Australia Bank goes live with Apple Pay
Australian ‘big four’ bank NAB adopts Apple Pay, Westpac lone holdout — AppleInsider — “National Australia Bank (NAB) on Monday announced immediate support for Apple Pay, becoming the third of Australia’s ‘big four’ banks to integrate with Apple’s payments platform after a failed boycott… With NAB on board, Westpac becomes the last of Australia’s ‘big four’ banks to resist Apple Pay.”
TriMet rolls out NFC ticketing for iPhone users
Portland-Vancouver’s Hop Fastpass becomes first transit fare card in North America on iPhone — TriMet — “Starting today, riders in the Portland-Vancouver region can add a Hop Fastpass card to Apple Wallet and use their iPhone and Apple Watch to ride TriMet, C-Tran and Portland Streetcar.”
ABN Amro unveils blockchain-based NFC platform for trade inventory tracking
ABN Amro to launch Forcefield — ABN Amro — “The platform can communicate with physical trade inventories through the Internet of Things, sensors and near field communication chips. As a result, the inventories, which are often collateral for loans, can be monitored very effectively, which will lead to more secure physical handling processes and a reduction of costs.”
Apple Pay goes live in Luxembourg and Hungary
Apple Pay launches in Hungary and Luxembourg — MacRumors — “In Luxembourg, BGL BNP Paribas is currently the sole bank supporting Apple’s digital wallet, while OTP Bank is supporting Apple Pay in Hungary… The expansion within Europe follows the launch of Apple Pay in Iceland earlier this month. Elsewhere, regional banks in The Netherlands and Portugal have teased that Apple’s contactless payment system is ‘coming soon’.”
NFC and contactless transit ticketing to go live in New York City from 31 May
About Omny — The MTA — “Starting on May 31, 2019, you can use Omny onboard all Staten Island buses and at all subway station entrances on the 4, 5, and 6 lines between Grand Central-42 Street and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr. All remaining bus routes, subway stations, and Staten Island Railway locations will be equipped by late 2020. You will be able to use Omny for commuter rail by early 2021.”
Privatbank to use customised ‘card avatars’ to drive mobile payments adoption
Ukraine’s PrivatBank has become the first in the world to provide customers with a way to customise the design of the cards they add to Google Pay or Apple Pay — beginning with a set of X-Men: Dark Phoenix original designs made available via a licensing deal with movie studio 20th Century Fox... More
Visa reports on contactless payments adoption
Tap to pay is taking off — Visa — “Globally, adoption continues to see strong growth with nearly half of all face-to-face Visa transactions occurring with a tap outside the US. In the last year, nearly 50 countries have seen a 10 point or greater increase in tap-to-pay penetration of all domestic face-to-face transactions.”
Google Pay to add a rewards platform?
Google’s new plan to push Google Pay in India: cashback incentives in Android apps — Techcrunch — “The company has built an in-app engagement rewards platform that promises to help developers and businesses retain users and drive engagement on their apps, two sources familiar with the matter said… Sitting at the core of this new play is Google Pay, which will be used for transactions between businesses and users, thereby expanding the reach of Google’s payment service.”
Ticketmaster to roll out NFC ticketing for iPhones and Apple Watches ‘later this year’
Ticketmaster customers will be able to add contactless tickets to Apple Wallet later this year, enabling their tickets to be automatically selected via NFC when they hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a ticket reader... More
Report highlights discrepancies between what technology users want and what they adopt
Despite greater than ever use of smart devices for banking and payments and a desire for the latest technologies, Europeans are some of the most cautious adopters, according to a survey of 15,000 consumers in Europe, America and Australia... More
Erste Bank adds NFC to its QR mobile payments app
Hungarian bank Erste has upgraded its Erste MobilePay application for Android phones to include NFC functionality, enabling customers to use their phones for contactless payment... More
Alipay and WeChat Pay to support common QR code standard for Japan
Japan to unify mobile payment codes, enlisting Chinese giants — Nikkei Asian Review — “Line and Alibaba Group Holding are among five major internet businesses from Japan and China that will standardize QR codes that are scanned to make payments via smartphones in Japan, Nikkei has learned. The others joining this undertaking are online flea market operator Mercari and mobile carrier NTT Docomo from Japan and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay from China.”
Mexico pilots national NFC and QR mobile payments system
Mexico’s central bank Banxico has begun trials of its cashless QR and NFC Cobro Digital (CoDi) electronic payment system with employees of financial institutions including BBVA Bancomer, Citibanamex, Santander, Banorte, Banregio and Fincomun... More
Kenyan charity issues contactless wristbands to students for discounted meal payments
Kenyan social enterprise Food for Education is speeding up the rollout of its Tap2Eat NFC cash replacement system for subsidised school meals following a successful pilot in three primary schools in Nairobi involving 150 students... More
ABI Research forecasts 10bn NFC tags in use by 2023
NFC tags represent an “enormous growth opportunity” and are now “ready for the mainstream”, according to a new forecast by ABI Research which is available to download free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Analysts: Contactless card rollout could push US mobile payment users back to plastic
Familiarity with mobile payments could help to drive adoption of contactless cards in the US but could in turn move those that have already adopted mobile payments back to physical methods of payment, according to a new issue of Auriemma Research’s Mobile Pay Tracker... More
GlobalData: Facebook Messenger payments scrapped due to poor adoption
Facebook’s decision to discontinue its peer-to-peer (P2P) Messenger payments option in the UK and France next month is due to poor adoption of the service by consumers, according to new figures from data analytics company GlobalData... More
MetroRio launches contactless transit ticketing payments in Brazil
Brazilian transit operator MetroRio, which runs the Rio de Janeiro Metro, has begun the rollout of contactless payments in partnership with Visa, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco and Cielo, becoming the first transit operator in the world to use the new Visa Secure Access Module (SAM) technology as part of the project... More
Alltown lets drivers use their toll tag to pay for fuel from their car
PayByCar partners with P97 Networks to enable toll-tag based in-vehicle payments at Alltown retail fuel sites — P97 Networks — “By simply linking an E-ZPass transponder to a separate non-toll account on www.mypaybycar.com, the driver gains a convenient fuel purchase experience similar to the one of driving through an electronic toll lane… When a driver pulls into a forecourt, the transponder and vehicle ID are detected by RFID sensors installed at site entrances.