Airports in the USA and elsewhere around the world could soon begin testing biometric access control cards that use a built-in fingerprint sensor to verify the identity of employees or other authorised cardholders at points of entry to secure areas... More
Customers of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) in the United Arab Emirates can now apply for a biometric credit card — the first to be launched in the country — that enables users to verify both contact and contactless payments with their fingerprint and earn reward points that they can redeem at more than 3,500 locations across the UAE... More
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun testing a prototype wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) and will launch a pilot programme for a retail digital rupee with merchants and consumers in select locations “within a month”, the central bank says... More
One in ten consumers in the Nordic countries now prefer to make mobile payments at the point of sale, double the number who prefer to use cash (5%), making mobile payments the second most popular payment method in the region for the first time, according to figures from regional payments processor Nets... More
Turkey is planning to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that will be integrated with the country’s digital identity system and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s FAST instant payments service... More
The Austrian government is enabling residents to create and store a digital version of their driving licence on their Apple or Android smartphone as a first step towards rolling out “as many digital ID cards and documents on mobile phones as possible”... More
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has added support for reduced fares to its Omny open loop contactless payments service, enabling eligible senior citizens and people with disabilities to receive a discount whenever they tap to pay for their subway or bus journey using their debit or credit card, smartphone or wearable device... More
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has unveiled a prototype two-tier central bank digital currency (CBDC) ecosystem that will enable end users to store digital HK dollars as either intermediated CBDC tokens or CBDC-backed stablecoins in a digital wallet and use them to carry out retail transactions... More
Japan-based payments network JCB is to run an in-store central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot that uses existing contactless payment cards, point of sale (POS) hardware and softPOS payment acceptance technology installed on mobile devices... More
Apple iPhone users can now share NFC digital car, house, workplace and hotel room keys held in Wallet with colleagues, friends and family via messaging apps including Messages and WhatsApp... More
The New Zealand government and the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency have confirmed plans to launch a national account-based open loop payments system that will enable public transport users to make contactless fare payments with a new national transit card or their own physical or digital credit or debit card... More
Customers purchasing laptops, tablets, smartphones and accessories from a branch of Polish retail chain Komputronik in the city of Wroclaw can now pay for their purchases using a biometric payments system that uses a combination of iris and face recognition technology... More
Voters in the US state of Mississippi will be able to verify their identity when proving their eligibility to vote in November’s mid-term elections using a digital version of their driving licence stored in the state’s Mobile ID digital identity wallet on their smartphone... More
Residents of South Korea will soon be able to store a digital ID in an app on their mobile phone and use it to verify their identity across a wide range of use cases including accessing government services, healthcare, finance and transport... More
Fans attending sports matches, concerts and other events at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena in the US state of Washington can now opt to pay for their purchases with their palm at three additional food and drink outlets across the venue... More
Passengers travelling on the Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula and Gold Coast railway lines in south east Queensland can now make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card, mobile phone or smartwatch using the Australian state’s open loop ticketing system... More
WeChat Pay users in China can now opt to authenticate payments with their palm at merchants that support the payment service’s new biometric WeChat Palm Payment solution... More
Customers of Danske Bank in Denmark can now add their Dankort debit card to Apple Pay and use it to make mobile payments using the country’s Dankort domestic payment system... More
Apple Pay has gone live in a number of shopping malls in Kuwait prior to a full rollout in the country “soon”, according to media reports... More
Merchants in Australia can now accept contactless payments directly on their Android NFC smartphone or tablet using National Australia Bank’s Easy Tap software point of sale (sPOS) solution... More