More than four fifths of consumers (81%) worldwide are ready to use a biometric payment card and authenticate payments with their fingerprint rather than a PIN code, according to a survey commissioned by a biometric technology provider... More
Projects to develop a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use by consumers and businesses are “more advanced” and “particularly strong” in emerging economies, according to analysis by global consultancy firm PwC... More
Apple Pay has rolled out in South Africa with support for Visa cards issued by Absa and Discovery Bank and for Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards issued by Nedbank... More
Customers of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) with a compatible smartphone can now add their UnionPay International (UPI) virtual card to a Huawei Pay digital wallet and use it to make NFC or QR code-enabled mobile payments... More
Owners of Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 smartphones in the USA will not be able to make payments using Samsung Pay’s magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology... More
Consumers in South Africa with compatible smartphones can now use Huawei Pay to make mobile payments by scanning QR codes compatible with the Zapper scan-to-pay payments platform... More
Merchants in more than 15 countries around the world are now able to use Android NFC smartphones and tablets to accept contactless payments with no additional hardware required, Visa has announced... More
South Africa’s Nedbank has become the first bank in Africa to enable merchants to accept contactless payments on standard NFC phones... More
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
Gautrain, the commuter rail service that connects the South African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, is to let passengers use their contactless bank cards to pay for their journeys by tapping on and off the service from 31 October... More
Five-currency basket: Brics countries create a single payment service — Izvestia (translation) — “One of the likely scenarios for the project is the creation of a special online wallet that will unite the payment systems of all the Brics countries… The common wallet will work in the same way as existing payment services, such as Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. To this end, a separate cloud platform will be created that will connect the national payment systems of the five countries.”
Absa to give clients early access to Samsung Pay — TechCentral — “Absa, in association with Samsung South Africa, will soon be offering its customers early access to Samsung Pay before the service is commercially launched in South Africa,” the bank said. “The partnership with Samsung Pay will give Absa customers even more choice on how they can make payments.”
Banking services now more accessible with Shoprite Money — Shoprite — “This new service will enable customers to deposit, withdraw or send money as well as buy groceries at any of the till points in all Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper or Usave stores across South Africa… Shoprite Money is set to roll out in multiple countries in Africa over the next 12 to 18 months, which will hold additional benefits for customers including seamless and cost effective cross-border remittance.”
Biometric ATMs extend banking services — IT-Online — “The TouchPoint validates a customer’s identity by scanning a fingerprint placed on the biometric reader and it can detect false fingerprints to prevent fraud. The identity of the customer is then verified with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure the self-service account opening complies with the relevant laws.”
Samsung Pay launch date for South Africa — MyBroadband — “Samsung Pay will launch in South Africa around June 2018, the CEO of Samsung Electronics Africa, Sung Yoon, has announced. Speaking on the Expresso Show, Yoon said Samsung Pay will be available this winter, but then firmed up his statement to ‘around June’.
Huawei Music, cloud services coming to SA — Tech Central — “The plan is to expand coverage outside China to 60 countries (including South Africa) by June and to 100 countries by the end of the year… Local banks that Huawei is talking to with the hope of integrating the service include Nedbank and First National Bank.”
SA scientists develop next-gen digital ID tech — IT Web — “The technology, dubbed aiDX, is an advanced identification technology that uses deep science to simulate human cognition in order to confirm or determine the identity of a person to industrial grade standards on any smartphone or device equipped with a camera.”
Employees at Pick n Pay supermarket stores and Absa Bank staff across South Africa have been trialling a biometric card developed by Mastercard that lets them make a payment at any EMV terminal and authenticate the transaction by placing their finger on the embedded sensor. Additional trials are planned over the next few months, with a full roll out expected “later this year”. More
South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) has seen a 270% increase in the number of contactless payments made with its credit cards over the last six months... More
Mastercard has unveiled a new feature for its Qkr... More
