Citizens of Pakistan can now apply for a national ID card using a mobile app that enables them to scan the documents needed to support their application and verify their identity with their fingerprint and a photograph of their face from their smartphone... More
The total number of digital ticketing transactions worldwide will increase by 62% from 20.8bn in 2021 to 33.8bn in 2023, with bus and metro ticketing accounting for one in three (33%) of those transactions, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Two-fifths of US consumers (40%) still prefer to use cash and just under 40% of US businesses (39%) maintain a cash-only policy for purchases of less than US$20 “despite the availability of technology-driven forms of payment such as credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets,” a survey by a division of WSFS Bank has found... More
A research paper published by the University of Exeter in the UK identifies the lack of global standards as one of the key barriers to the successful implementation of digital and paper-based Covid-19 health status certificates worldwide... More
Consumers can now prove their identity when picking up parcels and other deliveries at post offices across the UK using a digital identity app rather than a paper document such as their passport or driving licence... More
Apple users in the US states of Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah will soon be able to store and present digital versions of their driving licence and state ID documents on an NFC-enabled iPhone and Apple Watch... More
The US Consumer Brands Association (CBA) has released an operational standard that will enable shippers, carriers, logistics companies and retailers to implement contactless pickup and delivery workflows across their supply chains... More
Residents of the Chinese city of Shanghai will soon be able to scan their Suishenma digital ID and health QR code to pay for their fares on buses, ferries and metro services, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government has announced... More
The South Korean parliament has passed a bill that will require companies such as Apple and Google to allow the use of payment services other than their own proprietary systems for the purchase of digital goods within their app stores... More
Consumers purchasing bags, purses, shoes and accessories manufactured by Italian fashion house Prada will soon be able to authenticate a product and access information about how and where it was made by scanning an embedded NFC tag with their mobile device... More
Hawaiian motorists can now use a mobile app to find vacant parking spaces and then pay for their spot by tapping a contactless ‘smart station’ with their NFC smartphone... More
Owners of a smartwatch running Google’s Wear OS operating system will soon be able to use it to make contactless payments using Google Pay in 16 additional countries... More
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is enabling customers to open a new account remotely and without needing to visit a branch in person by taking a selfie, scanning their passport and tapping their Emirates ID card with an NFC-enabled device... More
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs is piloting an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) app that enables eligible travellers to apply for an electronic visa to enter the country and authenticate their identity credentials by scanning their passport with an NFC-enabled mobile device... More
The number of debit transactions completed using a mobile wallet in the US rose by 51% year-on-year to approximately 2bn in 2020, with “a noteworthy” 92% of those transactions being made with Apple Pay and just 5% with Google Pay and 3% with Samsung Pay, according to research published in the 2021 Debit Issuer Study... More
Customers in Woolworths stores in Cape Town and Johannesburg can now browse, virtually test and order beauty products for home delivery by tapping in-store NFC tags with their mobile phone... More
San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) in the US state of California is rolling out an account-based contactless ticketing system that will let passengers pay their public transit fares with a physical or digital transit card and have those fares capped to a maximum of the price of a daily or monthly pass... More
Passengers planning a journey or waiting to board a bus on the Translink network in the Metro Vancouver area of Canada can now check how many seats are likely to be available on any given bus service using a new feature on the transportation provider’s Transit app... More
Passengers on buses, trams and funicular railway services in the northern Italian city of Bergamo can now make contactless payments for their fares using their credit or debit card or from a digital wallet on their NFC-enabled mobile device... More
Google has added NFC functionality to both of the latest versions of its Titan Security Key, enabling Google account holders to use them as a second layer of authentication when signing into their account or compatible third-party apps and services by tapping the key on their mobile device... More