Rethinking Payment Request for iOS Chrome — Google — “The best way to enable more seamless and secure payments on the web is to enable an interoperable ecosystem, where digital wallets can bring their best experience to the web. This means shifting focus to the Payment Handler API, which is an emerging W3C standard that allows third party payment handlers, which can be either native mobile apps or progressive web apps, to integrate with the browser to handle Payment Requests… This shift in focus means that we will eventually sunset Chrome’s built-in ‘basic-card’ payment handler.”
- EBA recommends Europe-wide contactless transaction limit increase
- Table: Contactless payment transaction limit increases around the world
- Mastercard: 29 countries have now agreed to raise their contactless payment limit
- Mastercard, Thales and Tappy explain how watch and wearable brands can add support for payments
- UK raises contactless transaction limit by 50%
Apple Pay revenue and transactions ‘more than double’ in the year
Apple Pay revenue and transactions have “more than doubled year-over-year with the run rate exceeding 15bn transactions a year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed. More
UK consumers warming to face biometrics
A survey has found that while half of Brits are happy to unlock their phones with their faces, only a third trust the technology to authorise a payment... More
Poste Italiane adds QR code payments to Postepay app
Italy’s national postal service provider has added QR code-based payments to its mobile payments app, to support the country’s transition from cash to digital payments... More
World Economic Forum publishes central bank digital currency toolkit
The World Economic Forum has released a Policy‑Maker Toolkit for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), designed “to help central banks evaluate, design and potentially deploy CBDC”... More
New York City bans cashless stores
New York City has joined New Jersey, Philadelphia and San Francisco in passing legislation that makes it illegal for stores, restaurants and other retail outlets to not accept cash... More
China publishes face recognition payments guidelines
The Payment & Clearing Association of China (PCAC) has published a set of guidelines that regulate how payments providers making use of face recognition to process payments at the point of sale (POS) should manage the protection of consumer data. More
India requires banks to let cardholders opt in to contactless payments
Card issuers in India are to be required to ship all new cards to customers with contactless functionality switched off by default — and also provide cardholders with a range of easy ways to toggle their card’s contactless support on or off. More
Huawei Pay expands to Pakistan
Huawei starts its mobile wallet service Huawei Pay in Pakistan — Technology Times — “Huawei has launched its mobile wallet service Huawei Pay in Pakistan in cooperation with UnionPay International and National Bank of Pakistan, making it the fourth market where Huawei Pay has been made available, following China, Russia and Hong Kong.”
One million Brits now use open banking
The number of consumers using open banking has doubled in the past six months to more than one million, the UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) reports, and there are now a total of 204 regulated service providers — up from 100 at the end of 2018... More
Venmo adds branded animated emojis to payment messages
US P2P payments app Venmo is adding support for a suite of custom-designed animated emojis that can be used “when paying, splitting and sharing payments” and include branded options from both Subway and Ikea... More
Central banks set up digital currency group
The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), are to work together “to assess potential cases for central bank digital currencies”... More
Sberbank lets customers gift their loyalty points to friends and family
Russia’s Sberbank is launching an app for its Spasibo loyalty programme that will make it possible for customers to transfer their loyalty points to a friend or family member, either as a small gift or so they can “save up Spasibo points for a large purchase together”. More
Icici Bank lets customers withdraw cash with their mobile phones
Customers of India’s Icici Bank can now make a cash withdrawal at any of the bank’s 15,000 ATMs, using just their mobile phone... More
Shell lets Fiat Chrysler drivers pay for fuel from their vehicles
Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram drivers can now use Uconnect Market, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ new in-vehicle commerce platform, to pay for fuel at Shell-branded stations across the US... More
Amazon to test palm payments at the point-of-sale
Cash, plastic or hand? Amazon envisions paying with a wave — The Wall Street Journal — “The tech giant is creating checkout terminals that could be placed in bricks-and-mortar stores and allow shoppers to link their card information to their hands, according to people familiar with the matter. They could then pay for purchases with their palms, without having to pull out a card or phone.”
Malaysian government offers cash incentives to mobile payments users
Overwhelming response on first day of RM30 e-Tunai initiative — The Star — “The claims for the e-Tunai Rakyat initiative kicked off today with Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost and GrabPay selected to be the service providers for the project… Malaysians aged 18 and above and who earn less than RM100,000 (US$24,533) annually will be eligible to receive RM30 (US$7.36) each through any of the participating e-wallets.”
Indonesia begins EMV QR mobile payments rollout
Indonesia imposes standard QR code, fixed fees for e-wallets — Tech in Asia — “Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), officially imposed the QR code standardization called QRIS (Indonesian Standard QR Code) on January 1. This means that all mobile payment providers must replace their QR code with QRIS for easier transactions.”
Visa to acquire Plaid in $5.3bn move into open banking and integrated payments
Visa is to acquire Plaid for US$5.3bn, in a move that CEO Al Kelly says “will put us at the epicentre of the fintech world, expanding our total addressable market and accelerating our long-term revenue growth trajectory”... More
Visa to let merchants accept contactless payments on Android NFC phones
Visa has unveiled Tap to Phone, a new software-only solution that enables merchants to accept contactless payments on Android NFC mobile phones, without the need for any additional hardware... More
