Kenya and Ghana have the highest rates of mobile payment use in the world after China and, ultimately, there could be as many as 850 million mobile payment users in Africa conducting transactions worth US$2.5tn to US$3tn a year, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)... More
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Transport for West Midlands unveils plans for regional smart ticketing system
Public transportation users in the West Midlands will be able to use a new ‘tap and cap’ smart ticketing platform to make contactless payments for their journeys across the UK region’s entire rail, bus and tram network by 2022, according to plans revealed by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM)... More
Pizzahacker rolls out QR self-serve ordering
Diners at the Pizzahacker restaurant in Mill Valley, California, can now use a self-serve feature to place their order on their mobile device by scanning a QR code and selecting what they want to eat and drink on the restaurant’s mobile-enabled ordering page... More
Mastercard to add merchant logos to transaction records
Mastercard users will soon be able to more easily identify and verify whether payments recorded on their online statements are legitimate as the card issuer starts linking merchant logos to any transactions a user has made with participating companies... More
IDC: One in two wearables to include contactless payments support
Global shipments of wearable devices will reach a total of 396m units this year and increase to 637.1m in 2024, with the proportion of those offering support for contactless payments set to rise to nearly 50% by the end of the year, International Data Corp (IDC) predicts... More
UOB lets customers use its mobile banking app to link debit and credit cards to third-party apps
Customers of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) can now use its UOB Mighty mobile banking app to add their debit and credit card details directly to third-party apps, avoiding the need to separately enter their card details and providing an additional reason for customers to engage with their banking app... More
Singapore adds face verification to national digital ID service
Citizens using Singapore’s SingPass national digital ID system can now use face verification to securely authenticate themselves when accessing a growing range of government and commercial services on their mobile phone, computer or in government agency kiosks... More
First Bus enables Apple Pay Express Mode for contactless ticketing
Apple Pay users travelling on First Bus services in the UK can now pay for their fares with a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch without having to authenticate their payment with Face ID or Touch ID... More
PSCU reports 70% increase in US mobile debit card transactions
The weekly volume of mobile wallet debit card transactions in the USA has increased by 70.3% compared with this time last year, while weekly mobile wallet credit card transactions have grown by 50.4% over the same period, according to the PSCU’s latest Tracking Transaction Trends report... More
Google Pay adds bill splitting, movie bookings and scratchcard rewards in Singapore
Google Pay users in Singapore can now divide bill payments between groups of family and friends, book cinema tickets and receive rewards via virtual scratchcards... More
Dubai adds transit card top-ups to S’hail mobility app
Passengers on Dubai’s public transport network using a Nol transit card to pay for their journeys can now top up the card from the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority’s S’hail travel app... More
Moscow Metro adds support for Huawei Pay
Passengers on the Moscow Metro system can now use NFC-enabled Huawei and Honor smartphones to make contactless payments for their fares with Huawei Pay at every station on the Russian capital’s network, Tdaily.ru reports... More
Austrian gin maker authenticates limited-edition bottles with NFC and blockchain
Buyers of a premium limited-edition gin distilled in Austria will be able to verify a bottle’s authenticity and track how many remain available for sale by using their NFC phone to scan a crypto-enabled NFC chip fitted to the label... More
Strong customer authentication requirements could cost European retailers €100bn in lost sales
The introduction of the 3D Secure 2.0 (3DS2) protocol for strong customer authentication (SCA) could cost European retailers more than €100bn (US$116.7bn) in online sales in 2021, payments consultancy CMSPI predicts... More
Edenred adds Apple Pay for UK prepaid cardholders
Holders of Edenred prepaid incentive and rewards cards in the UK can now add their card to Apply Pay and make mobile and online payments for food, fuel, transport, parking and corporate transactions with their iPhone, Apple Watch or other Apple Pay-enabled device... More
Amazon lets customers pay with their palm at two US retail stores
Customers shopping at two Amazon Go outlets in Seattle, USA, can now gain access to the convenience stores and pay for their purchases by simply placing their palm over a contactless palm scanning device installed at the entrance... More
Klang2 launches music memory game with NFC
Fans of traditional memory games such as Pairs can now play sound-based versions of it using their NFC-enabled smartphone, an app and a set of 20 wooden sound squares equipped with NFC chips... More
Samsung lets German customers link any bank account to Samsung Pay
Samsung device owners in Germany can now link a personal account at “almost any” German bank to Samsung Pay and then use a virtual Visa debit card to make mobile payments in-store... More
One in five Japanese consumers to make mobile payments in stores this year
The number of people in Japan who use their smartphone to make mobile payments at the point of sale will reach 23.9 million — 21.5% of the population — by the end of this year, up from 19.1 million in 2019, according to an eMarketer forecast... More
Adelaide Metro pilots contactless bank card and digital wallet payments for tram ticketing
Passengers on Adelaide Metro’s tram network can now make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card or their tap-and-pay digital wallet without needing a metroCARD transit card or using cash... More