Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank has begun testing a digital currency designed to enable consumers to store an electronic version of the Swedish krona in a digital wallet and make payments, deposits and withdrawals using a mobile app. More
Domino’s customers in the US can now use Pie Pass, a new service that lets buyers who place their order online or via the company’s app use a dedicated express pickup system when they collect their pizza... More
Shell and Dunkin’ have launched the ‘Sip Dunkin’, Save at Shell’ scheme that rewards members of both retailers’ loyalty programmes with a 10 cents per gallon saving on their fuel purchase whenever they have bought five beverages at a Dunkin’ outlet... More
Iconic UK retailer M&S is expanding its mobile self-checkout service to 49 stores across London, following a successful pilot at six stores that saw a Mobile Pay Go transaction being made every three seconds during lunchtime trading... More
Merchants can now use Apple Pay to let shoppers purchase items from directly within an augmented reality experience, using a new Custom Action feature Apple has rolled out for AR Quick Look... More
Las Vegas restaurant Makers & Finders is the first to use a new service that lets diners scan a QR code on their printed bill to pay for their meal with Apple Pay... More
Payments made via Apple Pay now account for around 5% of global card transactions, according to research firm Bernstein — and are set to represent 10% of all card transactions by 2025... More
Global contactless transaction values will reach nearly US$6tn in 2024, up from US$2tn today, Juniper Research forecasts. More
“We had a tremendously successful launch in India from which we learnt a lot of features, and we are bringing that and we are revamping our payments products globally,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed... More
‘Low KYC’ norm to help mobile wallets retain their customers — Economic Times — “In a move set to bring relief to scores of mobile wallet firms such as Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and their several million users, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow wallet service providers to continue operating their millions of non-compliant know-your-customer (KYC) accounts which earlier faced cancellation… An estimated over 200m mobile wallets ran the risk of being cancelled by the regulators, once the deadline to upgrade their non-compliant accounts to ‘full KYC’ accounts expires on February 29.”
The digitalization of payments and currency: Some issues for consideration — The Federal Reserve — “Given the dollar’s important role, it is essential that we remain on the frontier of research and policy development regarding CBDC [Central Bank Digital Currency]. Like other central banks, we are conducting research and experimentation related to distributed ledger technologies and their potential use case for digital currencies, including the potential for a CBDC. We are collaborating with other central banks as we advance our understanding of central bank digital currencies.”
7-Eleven is piloting a cashierless store concept at its US headquarters that uses technology developed in-house to let employees check in to the 700sqft store, shop and then exit — without needing to visit a physical checkout. More
One in 14 people ‘no longer carry a wallet’ — Yahoo Finance — “One in 14 people say they no longer carry a wallet, a survey has found. Some 7% no longer take a wallet out and about with them, while a fifth (20%) said that if they were to look in their wallet it would not contain any cash.”
Turbulent entry into the payments market: Apple Pay requires high commission in Israel — Calcalist (translation) — “Apple representatives have begun a round of meetings with banks and credit companies to formulate agreements to begin Apple Pay’s operations in the country… Some players were surprised to find that Apple requires a fairly high fee estimated at 0.15% to 0.25% of any transaction made through Apple Pay… ‘It is disproportionate, and constitutes an exploitation of its status and power,’ says a source close to the talks between the parties.”
Visa is planning the biggest changes to swipe fees in a decade — Bloomberg — “The company’s interchange rates — fees charged every time a consumer uses a card — will go up or down depending on the merchant and the way a consumer pays for their purchases, according to a document Visa sent to banks that outlines the changes. Higher rates are looming for transactions on e-commerce sites, while retailers in certain services categories, such as real estate and education, will see fees decline.”
Royal Australian Mint expects lowly silver coins to be phased out amid rise of contactless payments — ABC Radio Melbourne — “Royal Australian Mint chief executive Ross MacDiarmid said demand for coinage had dropped by about 55% in the last five years, and most of that had been for silver coins… Rising inflation, coupled with the growth of online and contactless payments, are rendering the lowly silvers obsolete… Much like the old 1 and 2c coins, phased out in the 1990s, Mr MacDiarmid expected the mint to eventually stop producing 5 and 10c coins.”
Worldline to acquire Ingenico — Worldline — “This transaction would combine two premier companies to create the world’s number four player in payment services with circa 20,000 employees in approximately 50 countries… Upon closing, the new combined group would offer best-in-class payment services to nearly 1m merchants and 1,200 financial institutions.”
Data on the latest adoption rates for contactless transactions, tokenization, transit payments and secure remote commerce has been made available by Visa CEO Al Kelly — along with details of the revenue model to be used by Plaid, which Visa is to acquire for $5.3bn... More
IBM awarded patent for ‘self-aware token’ — Coindesk — “The patent outlines a ledger-based payments system that could make it easier for individual users, businesses and governments to track and trace transactions made using a cryptocurrency. Dubbed the ‘self-aware token’, it is designed to record all transaction data when not being used on a payments platform IBM patented in 2012. When the token rejoins the platform ecosystem at a later stage, it automatically uploads data from any ‘off-line transactions’.”
NBC’s digital payments to go live in next few months — The Phnom Penh Post — “The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will launch a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer payment and money transfer platform in the next few months… Bakong, essentially a quasi-form of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), was launched on a trial basis in July and will be operational within the present fiscal quarter… Bakong will help set a national standard for QR code usage, which will be integrated with Asean equivalents.”
