US Apple Card holders shopping at Walgreens and Duane Reade stores can now earn 3% cashback on their purchases when they use their mobile phone to make an Apple Pay payment with their Apple Card... More
Author archive:
PepsiCo unveils customer loyalty programme that delivers cashback rewards to PayPal and Venmo accounts
PepsiCo has launched a loyalty programme that lets customers use their mobile phone to scan a code printed on drink bottles and snack bags to earn 10% cashback each time they buy both a drink and a snack — and receive their rewards as an automatic credit to their PayPal or Venmo account each time their balance reaches US$2... More
Mastercard to build blockchain cross-border payments platform
Mastercard has announced it is to work with blockchain specialist R3 “to develop and pilot a new blockchain-enabled cross-border payments solution that will initially focus on connecting global faster payments infrastructures, schemes and banks supported by a clearing and settlement network operated by Mastercard”... More
Denver adds support for Transit in-app ticketing
RTD, the transportation operator for the city of Denver which launched a transit ticketing integration with Uber in May 2019, has now added a further integration with travel planning app Transit, enabling users to plan and purchase RTD tickets from within the Transit app... More
NAB to integrate receipts into mobile banking app
Customers of National Australia Bank will be able to begin viewing receipts for their purchases from within their mobile banking app from later this year... More
Ankara adds NFC transit ticketing on buses, subways and local trains
Public transportation users in the Turkish capital of Ankara can now upload an AnkaraKart transit pass to their NFC mobile phone and use it to make payments on bus, subway and light rail services... More
Catalonia to issue citizens with ‘self sovereign’ digital IDs
Catalonia, the semi-autonomous region of Spain which includes the city of Barcelona, is to develop an electronic identity platform that “turns the citizen into owner, manager and exclusive custodian of his identity and data”... More
Nissan to build RFID payments into all cars sold in Brazil
All Nissan vehicles manufactured in Brazil are to come factory-installed with Sem Parar RFID tags, enabling them to be used to make in-vehicle payments for electronic tolls, car parking, fuel and retail transactions — including at McDonald’s drive-thrus across the country... More
Albert Heijn opens cashierless supermarket in the Netherlands
Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn has opened an autonomous mini supermarket that lets shoppers use their bank card to gain entry to the store, select items valued at up to the contactless card limit of €25 and then self-checkout — without the need to first download an app... More
Android 10 to make it easier for Google Pay users to switch between cards
A new feature due to be added to Android 10 will make it possible for Google Pay users to quickly access details of all their stored payment cards from their lockscreen — and then easily select from the list the card they wish to use for their next transaction... More
Google adds Secure NFC option to Android 10
A new feature in Android 10 will make it possible for consumers to choose whether or not they wish to be able to make NFC card emulation transactions without first unlocking their device... More
PBOC provides details on how China’s new digital currency will work
China’s central bank has released further details of its forthcoming digital currency — including the news that citizens will be able to use it to exchange money and make payments in an NFC-like manner... More
JR East introduces loyalty points for transit ticketing payments
Users of Japanese rail operator JR East’s Suica stored value transit cards will soon be able to start collecting loyalty points when they use their account to pay for their journeys — and will receive four times as many points when they use Suica to make a payment with their mobile phone rather than a plastic card... More
Swift to let banks pre-authorise funds for later purchases
Swift has published a new open banking API standard that “allows a payer’s bank to earmark funds for a purchase in advance, guaranteeing that the future payment will be honoured”... More
Polish merchants to pilot dongle-free contactless payments
Merchants in Poland are to be the first to pilot a new service that enables them to accept contactless payments of any amount “via a smartphone or tablet, in the same way a traditional payment terminal functions but with no additional equipment”... More
Cordless kitchens to combine NFC with wireless power to remove the need for plugs and cables
NFC connectivity is to play a major role in the delivery of a new generation of cordless kitchen appliances which work in conjunction with wireless power transmitter hotspots built into kitchen work surfaces to replace the need for traditional plugs and cables... More
Sainsbury’s halts cashierless supermarket pilot
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has added a manned till and two self-checkout stations to the London store it opened in April as the UK’s first checkout-free supermarket... More
Detroit rolls out multi-operator transit ticketing app
Public transportation users in Detroit, Michigan, can now use their mobile phone as well as the city’s new contactless transit cards to purchase time-based travel passes that work seamlessly across multiple transportation operators... More
Amazon to pilot biometric payments in Whole Foods stores?
A biometric payments system that uses the shape of a shopper’s hand to identify them at the point of sale (POS) is currently being tested by Amazon employees ahead of a planned pilot at “a handful” of Whole Foods supermarkets early next year, the New York Post reports... More
Mobile payments providers team up to let customers make QR payments across Europe
A group of seven mobile payments service providers with a combined user base of 25 million people in nine European countries have formed a new association to deliver “interoperability of the mobile payment systems across national borders”... More