Tokyo Metro and Tokyu Corporation are to test enabling passengers on subway and rail services in and around the Japanese capital to make contactless fare payments with their debit or credit cards rather than a proprietary transit card, according to local media reports... More
The Clipper fare payment system in the San Francisco Bay Area of the USA is to enable passengers to make contactless fare payments with their physical or digital debit or credit card, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has announced... More
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in Canada has added support for open loop contactless fare payments, enabling passengers travelling on streetcars, buses and Wheel-Trans para-transit vehicles in the city to pay fares with a tap of their physical or digital credit or debit card... More
The central bank digital currency (CBDC) that Brazil’s central bank is to pilot for retail payments in stores is to be called Drex and will be “a step forward in democratizing access for individuals and entrepreneurs to the benefits of the digitalization of the economy”, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has announced... More
Citizens of Finland travelling on Finnair flights to and from London, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK can now verify their identity at border control in Helsinki Airport using a digital passport stored on their Apple or Android smartphone... More
Merchants in the Netherlands can now use their Apple iPhone to accept contactless payments without needing any additional hardware... More
Customers at 12 Starbucks outlets in the US state of California can now opt to have their beverage served in a reusable cup that they can return after use to a smart collection bin which scans the cup and then automatically enters them for a prize draw... More
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to add support for NFC payments to the country’s UPI Lite digital wallet, enabling users to conduct transactions on their smartphone even when there is no internet or mobile connection... More
Residents of the US state of California can now generate and store a digital version of their driving licence or state ID card on their Apple or Android smartphone and use it to verify their identity at selected Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoints and confirm their age when making age-restricted purchases in selected stores... More
The total number of QR code payments made in SE Asia will reach 90bn by 2028, up from a total QR code transaction volume in the region of 13bn in 2023, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Moscow Metro is to pilot the use of Russia’s digital ruble for fare payments as part of the Central Bank of Russia’s real-world testing programme for the central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
More than £650,000 (US$828,320) of charitable donations have been made to 44 church parishes across The Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton in the UK using contactless cards since the diocese introduced contactless giving terminals in 2019... More
Customers of Kuwait International Bank (KIB) can now withdraw cash and conduct other transactions at the bank’s ATMs with a tap of their physical contactless KIB bank card or with a digital version stored on their NFC-enabled smartphone or wearable device... More
Researchers at the University of New Brunswick’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering in Canada are testing gait-based biometric security technology that verifies an individual’s identity using their walking pattern... More
More than nine in ten public transport users worldwide expect to be able to make contactless fare payments when travelling on public transport (94%) and more than four in ten identify the ability to make contactless fare payments as a key factor in encouraging their use of public transportation (41%), according to Visa’s 2023 Future of Urban Mobility survey... More
Just over 93% of card present transactions worldwide were made using EMV chip-enabled payment cards during 2022, up from 90.44% in 2021 and 88.55% in 2020, according to standards body EMVCo... More
Digital fashion house MNTGE has released a range of artist-designed textile patches embedded with an NFC chip that enables wearers to link to the physical patch’s digital twin in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) stored in a digital wallet with a tap of their smartphone... More
Aircrew working for Icelandair will soon be able to transfer their flight details to a reusable electronic bag tag attached to their luggage by tapping their NFC smartphone on the device... More
Professionals, businesses and consumers can now leave reminders on paper sticky notes containing an NFC tag that enables them to link the note to digital content — including voice recordings, photos and videos — by tapping the note with their smartphone... More
Customers at a Smokin’ Oak Wood Pizza outlet in Fayetteville in the US state of Arkansas can now pour their own drinks from digitally controlled taps in a self-serve taproom using a contactless bracelet... More