The Australian state of Queensland has begun the first of a series of pilots ahead of the rollout of its A$371m (US$249m) Smart Ticketing system, due to go live in 2022. A one-month pilot of new express ticketing gates is taking place at Brisbane’s Central Station More
Archive for October 2019
Moscow Metro adds support for China UnionPay open loop cards
Travellers in Russia’s capital can now use China UnionPay’s Quickpass contactless cards or an NFC payment app connected to a Quickpass card to pay their fares at 150 Moscow Metro stations, China’s Xinhua news agency reports... More
UK government includes iPhone NFC passport reading in iOS Brexit app
The UK government has introduced an iOS version of its EU Exit: ID Document Check app, enabling EU citizens to use the NFC passport reading capabilities Apple has introduced in iOS 13 to register for settled status in the UK... More
Invenco picks Cilab to speed up EMV development and testing
PARTNER NEWS: Cilab’s ci230 high-speed testing suite has made it possible for self-service payments leader Invenco to significantly improve the time it takes to develop, test and bring to market EMV-compliant NFC payment terminals for its customers, chief engineer Chris Henry has told NFC World... More
Report: EU antitrust investigators are examining Apple Pay
Apple Pay “has caught the eye of EU antitrust investigators, who have asked payment companies for feedback on the service,” regulatory risk specialist MLex reports... More
EBA sets new Strong Customer Authentication deadline
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a new Opinion that provides the European payments industry with an EU-wide additional 15 months to comply with strong customer authentication (SCA) requirements for online ecommerce transactions... More
Kraft Heinz promotes cheese slices with tamper resistant NFC tags
PARTNER NEWS: Food giant Kraft Heinz is using tamper resistant NXP NFC tags for an innovative marketing campaign that lets customers tap their NFC phone to a tag incorporated into product packaging for a chance to win a gift card — but only if they have first purchased the product and opened the packet... More
Samsung begins global rollout of mobile POS app that lets merchants accept payments on standard Android phones
Samsung’s NFC phone-based contactless payments acceptance service is now live in Canada and is to be introduced globally “starting in 2020”, the company has announced... More
Google expands support for transit cards on NFC mobile phones
A new deal between Google and Cubic Transportation Systems is set to make it possible for public transport users in a number of major cities around the world to use Google Pay to add their transit card to their NFC mobile phone... More
Brits now use smart cards and mobile phones for half their rail journeys
Rail passengers are now choosing to use ‘smart tickets’ for half of all the journeys they make, the UK’s Rail Delivery Group (RTG) has revealed, paving the way for the introduction of a wide array of innovative new fare structures... More
Ohio transportation providers roll out multi-operator regional mobile ticketing service
Public transportation operators from across the US state of Ohio have gone live with EZfare, a new service that lets passengers use a single mobile ticketing app to buy tickets and passes from any of the participating operators... More
Facebook loses Libra cryptocurrency backers
Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe and Mercado Pago have followed PayPal in pulling out of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project. The moves mean that PayU is now the only payments company to still be listed as a founding member of the Libra Association. More
Royal Mint produces solid gold payment card
The UK’s Royal Mint has unveiled a payment card that is produced entirely from 18-karat gold and comes with “no spending limit”... More
EMT to pilot blockchain and face recognition ticketing in Madrid
Madrid public transportation operator EMT has announced plans to run two next-generation transportation payments pilots... More
Survey pinpoints roadblocks to US mobile payments adoption
A major investigation into US consumers’ attitudes to mobile payments has found that concerns over how well they would be protected against loss should an issue arise is now the major barrier to widespread adoption of the technology... More
Japanese merchants report sharp increase in mobile transactions
The introduction of the Japanese government’s Cashless Japan initiative, which provides consumers with cashback incentives when they use a card or mobile phone to make a purchase, has led to a significant upswing in mobile payments adoption, according to reports from a number of merchants and mobile payments providers... More
Raiffeisen Bank picks Antelop for NFC payments and strong customer authentication
PARTNER NEWS: Raiffeisen Bank has launched an Android NFC mobile payments service in Romania and the Czech Republic that uses Antelop Solutions’ digital payments and tokenization platform... More
Dubai to launch virtual Nol transit card in 2020
Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority is to introduce a mobile version of its Nol transit card next year, enabling both tourists and local residents to use their NFC phones to travel on metro, tram, bus and maritime public transportation services... More
NatWest begins biometric credit card pilot
The UK’s NatWest bank has begun a three-month pilot of a biometric credit card that enables customers to make contactless transactions of up to £100 (US$123) instead of the usual maximum value of £30 (US$37)... More
Paris to use host card emulation to boost NFC transit ticketing availability
The number of passengers able to use the NFC transit ticketing system which went live in Paris in September is to be increased in 2020-21 with the addition of support for host card emulation (HCE)... More