The UK government has published a trust framework policy paper that lays out draft rules for how service providers, businesses and other organisations will be able to implement the use of digital identities... More
Amazon is recruiting a tech team that will be tasked with building “innovative payment products for customers in emerging markets” that will enable “customers to convert their cash into digital currency” to purchase “goods and/or services like Prime Video”, a job advertisement posted by the company reveals... More
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions has introduced a unified issuer token service provider hub that enables banks to simply and securely manage every stage of the digital card issuing and management process, from card enrolment to token lifecycle management... More
The People’s Bank of China has launched the first large-scale giveaway of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be held in Beijing and has distributed 10m digital yuan (US$1.55m) to 50,000 participants in a ‘red envelope’ lottery... More
The NFC Forum has published a paper laying out strategies for the use of NFC technology in the development and deployment of electronic identification by mobility-as-a-service platforms and multi-modal transportation services. More
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced plans to introduce NFC contactless payments in the country, enabling consumers to upload their bank card information to their mobile phone and use their device to make in-store purchases at the point of sale... More
Guests staying at hotels owned by France-based hospitality giant Accor will soon be able to open their rooms and access other hotel facilities contactlessly using a digital key uploaded to their smartphone on check-in... More
Chinese consumers made an average of three mobile payments a day during 2020, while 98% of the Chinese population consider mobile payments to be their most frequently used transaction method, an increase of five percentage points on last year, a new survey reveals... More
The governments of Denmark and Sweden have both announced that they are to develop and introduce digital vaccine certificates that will enable residents to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19... More
Barclays bank account holders in the UK can now automatically receive an itemised digital receipt in their banking app every time they use their debit card to make an in-store or online purchase from a retailer or food outlet that has signed up to support the service... More
The total value of the global plastic cards market has fallen by US$3bn over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number manufactured worldwide falling by 19.7% from 37.1bn in 2019 to 29.8bn in 2020, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA)... More
Apple is to let Apple Watch users unlock their iPhone using Face ID while they are wearing a mask, without having to enter an additional passcode... More
High school students at Magdalene Catholic College in Sydney, Australia, are to trial RFID transit ticketing tags that come with an operating distance of up to two metres, enabling an on-board reader to detect students automatically as they walk onto a bus... More
US supermarket chain Kroger is to pilot its first all self-checkout grocery store in Dallas, Texas, enabling customers to scan and pay for their purchases without needing to go through a cashier-staffed checkout lane... More
Public transportation users in the US state of Ohio’s Greater Dayton area can now use their mobile phone to make capped contactless fare payments from a stored value account, rather than having to purchase tickets or select a fare in advance... More
Amazon is enabling customers at three more of its Amazon Go outlets in Seattle, USA, to use a contactless palm scanning device to gain access to the store and pay for their purchases with their palm print... More
More than four-fifths of the world’s central banks (86%) are engaged in “some form of work” on a central bank digital currency (CBDC), up from “about one third” in 2019, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey... More
Passengers on public transportation services in the US city of Los Angeles can now add their TAP transit card to their Android smartphone and make contactless fare payments on the LA Metro and 25 other TAP-enabled transit agencies across LA County... More
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing to increase the limit for single contactless payments in the country from £45 (US$62) to £100 (US$137) and the limit for cumulative contactless transactions from £130 (US$179) to £200 (US$274)... More
Nearly one in two Americans (46%) are most likely or definitely interested in mobile payment options for public transit ticketing “for a safer mass transit journey”, a survey of consumers in 28 countries around the world has found... More