More than half of drivers worldwide are interested in using virtual car keys to access and start their vehicles (54%) and the global virtual car key market share is predicted to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 21.8% over the course of the decade, according to a Straits Research forecast... More
Archive for April 2023
US employee rewards programme trials online virtual prepaid card provisioning
Employee reward and incentive programmes provider Halo is trialling a digital card provisioning solution that enables users to quickly and easily add a virtual prepaid rewards card directly to their digital wallet without needing to download an app or add their bank details... More
Nashville wine festival uses NFC tags to offer bespoke customer experiences
Visitors to the recent Nashville Predators WineFest in Tennessee in the USA were able to access exclusive digital content provided by nearly 90 retailers taking part in the fundraising event by tapping NFC tags with their NFC-enabled smartphone... More
India and Nepal to sign cross-border mobile payments agreement
Residents of India will soon be able to make mobile payments for goods and services when visiting Nepal from their smartphone’s digital wallet using an interoperable cross-border payments system to be implemented between the two countries... More
European banks call for rethink on incorporating payments into EU digital identity wallet proposals
The European Credit Sector Associations (ECSAs) are calling on the European Union to re-examine clauses in legislation on the proposed European Digital Identity Wallet that appear to imply that “widely used cards and payment specifications” will have to accept the wallet for strong customer authentication (SCA) for payments “on a mandatory basis”... More
Lithuanian supermarket chain begins rolling out contactless stores
Lithuanian supermarket chain IKI has opened its second contactless convenience store in the capital Vilnius, enabling customers to check in at the store door by tapping their payment card, mobile wallet or retailer’s app, select the products they want and pay for their purchases without needing to scan them, by tapping their payment card as they leave... More
Amazon expands contactless pay by palm technology to Whole Foods Market stores in Colorado
Customers at Whole Foods Market stores in the greater Denver area in the US state of Colorado can now gain access to the supermarket and make contactless payments for their purchases with their palm... More
Hugo Boss adds NFC tags to baseball caps
Fashion house Hugo Boss has added an NFC tag to a range of baseball caps that enables purchasers to create non-fungible token (NFT) digital twins that they can use to dress avatars on the Ready Player Me metaverse platform... More
Korean merchants turn to softPOS for Apple Pay acceptance
Merchants in South Korea can now opt to accept Apple Pay payments on their smartphone without needing to purchase and install NFC readers at the point of sale as a number of new or upgraded software POS solutions roll out across the country... More
BMW lets riders unlock their motorcycle with their face or eye
Riders purchasing motorcycles in the BMW Motorrad Boxer range will soon be able to unlock their machine with their face when they are not wearing a helmet or with their eye if they already have their helmet on... More
Japan to host first entirely cashless World Expo in 2025
The World Expo 2025 in the Japanese city of Osaka will be the first world’s fair to be entirely cashless and is developing a dedicated blockchain-enabled Expo Digital Wallet that visitors will be able to use to make contactless payments with their smartphone both inside and outside the venue as well as after the event... More
Kochi Metro promotion drives upsurge in mobile ticketing adoption
The number of passengers purchasing QR code mobile tickets for journeys on Kochi Metro services in the Indian state of Kerala has increased twenty-fold since the rapid transit system launched a promotion offering a 10% discount for peak-time and 50% discount for off-peak travel to mobile ticketing users... More
NFCW welcomes 33 new members in March 2023
Welcome to the 33 new members who joined the NFCW Knowledge Centre in March, representing private, government and academic organisations in 17 countries and at all stages of their contactless journeys... More
EU begins work on digital visas for Schengen visitors
The European Union is to begin negotiating a proposal to enable travellers who require a visa to transit through — or make a short stay in countries within — the border-free Schengen area of Europe to apply for and store a digital version of the credential on their smartphone... More
North Wales buses get interoperable fare-capped contactless payments
Passengers on buses in North Wales can now make contactless fare payments on services run by 25 different local operators with their debit or credit card using an interoperable fare-capped ticketing system rolled out across nearly 200 routes in the region... More
Singapore lets taxi and bus drivers store digital vocational licences on their smartphone
Bus, taxi and private hire car drivers as well as school bus attendants in Singapore can now add a digital version of their vocational licence to the country’s Singpass app on their smartphone and use it to verify their identity and licence status, gain access to restricted areas and earn loyalty points when purchasing fuel... More
TSA to extend contactless digital ID verification pilot to airports in Puerto Rico and Tennessee
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to start letting passengers use their digital driving licence or state ID card stored on their smartphone to verify their identity at checkpoints in Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico and Nashville International Airport in Tennessee later this year, according to TSA administrator David Pekoske... More
Singapore and Malaysia launch cross-border QR code payments system
Residents of Singapore and Malaysia can now make contactless QR code-based payments for goods and payments in either country using an interoperable cross-border payments system launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)... More
Number of digital payment cards issued globally to top 1.3bn by 2027
The number of payment cards issued via digital card issuance platforms worldwide will increase from 500m in 2023 to more than 1.3bn by 2027, according to a Juniper Research forecast... More
European Banking Federation lays out principles for a retail digital euro
The proposed retail digital euro should be appropriately designed in collaboration with the private sector, create value for end-users, preserve financial stability and incentivise and enable private sector intermediaries to add solutions and services within the central bank digital currency (CBDC) ecosystem, according to a European Banking Federation (EBF) vision paper... More