Orange Bank launches in Spain — Orange — “Orange Bank in Spain will be 100% mobile based, offering Orange customers a choice of savings account, cheque account, Mastercard debit card, group management, as well as discounts on Orange phone bills.”
Food giant Nestlé is testing face recognition payments at Nestlé Market, a concept supermarket in Barcelona, Spain, that stocks the company’s established brands as well as the latest additions to its range... More
Spain’s CaixaBank has unveiled ‘all in one’, a 3,000sqm bank branch in Barcelona that showcases the latest financial technology experiences — including NFC check-ins and facial recognition ATMs... More
China remains the country with by far the highest mobile payments adoption rate, with 81.1% of smartphone owners making use of the technology, eMarketer reports... More
Madrid public transportation operator EMT has announced plans to run two next-generation transportation payments pilots... More
Catalonia, the semi-autonomous region of Spain which includes the city of Barcelona, is to develop an electronic identity platform that “turns the citizen into owner, manager and exclusive custodian of his identity and data”... More
One million CaixaBank customers are now using their mobile phone to make in-store payments, up 87% on this time last year, and 100,000 customers are making payments using wearable devices, the Spanish bank has reported... More
Amazon launches Transparency in Europe, India and Canada — Amazon — “Transparency is a product serialisation service that provides a unique code for every unit that is manufactured. Brands put these codes on its products and every time one of these products is ordered in Amazon’s stores, Amazon scans and verifies the code to ensure only authentic units reach customers. Additionally, customers can use a mobile app to scan the code and verify authenticity regardless of where they purchased their units. Brands can also use Transparency to communicate unique unit-level information, including manufacturing date, manufacturing place, or other enhanced product information (eg ingredients).”
Six European mobile wallet providers — Bluecode (Austria), ePassi (Finland), Momo Pocket (Spain), Pagaqui (Portugal), Pivo (Finland) and Vipps (Norway) — have adopted a QR code format from Chinese payment provider Alipay to ensure digital payment interoperability and improve the international reach of customers’ wallets as well as boosting sales, participants have told NFCW... More
Despite greater than ever use of smart devices for banking and payments and a desire for the latest technologies, Europeans are some of the most cautious adopters, according to a survey of 15,000 consumers in Europe, America and Australia... More
CaixaBank, the world’s first bank to use facial recognition to withdraw cash at ATMs — CaixaBank — “CaixaBank has become the world’s first financial institution to offer its customers the ability to use facial recognition to withdraw cash from ATMs, without having to enter their PIN… CaixaBank now has this verification system in place in four Store branches in Barcelona, with a total of 20 terminals. The company plans to progressively expand facial recognition across its Store offices from the second half of 2019.”
BBVA launches facial recognition payments — BBVA — “Customers in the bank’s restaurants simply have to smile (or not, depending on their mood) at a camera booth next to the cash registers, and provided they have registered, the system identifies them and automatically bills the customer for the purchase… Colleagues can also use the dedicated Selfie & Go app to order their drinks ahead, with the system automatically charging the customer when they collect.”
The Niuron banking consortium will develop a platform to verify the digital identity of clients — Europa Press (translation) — “For banks, the benefits of this platform translate into an increase in speed, cost savings, reduction of fraud, reduction of operational risk and improvement of the prevention of money laundering. The client, on the other hand, decreases the time necessary during a registration process and has control and sovereignty over their personal data, thus improving their experience.”
BBVA launches its ‘invisible payments’ strategy — BBVA — “BBVA is already working on developing a facial recognition system to allow users to pick up their food and sit down directly, without needing to make a manual payment, or for anyone to check the user’s identity… The system uses machine learning algorithms through which the machines ‘learn’ to identify both the faces of users and products on the tray in order to make the correct charge on their card.”
Google Pay on Wear OS officially spreads to three new countries — Android Police — “In addition to using NFC-equipped watches to make regular mobile payments, users in Australia can use their Wear OS devices with the Opal ticketing system to pay for single-trip tickets on select rail and ferry lines… Formerly, Google’s payment service was only supported on Android Wear (now Wear OS) devices in the US and the UK.”
NFC World partners Antelop Solutions, Dejamobile, Rambus and STMicroelectronics will be at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona from 26 February to 1 March... More
Samsung Pay reaches 100m euros in transactions since its launch in Spain — Samsung Spain (translation) — “70% of respondents say that one of the reasons to buy a Samsung smartphone is to continue enjoying this service… The same study found that the use of mobile payment has increased notably in 2017, with 19% of users compared to 5% registered in 2016…. The convenience and simplicity offered by Samsung Pay are key factors for 75% of the respondents who gave the service a high satisfaction rating.”
Seat and Saba present Droppit, the app that delivers your grocery shopping directly to your parked car — Seat — “The six-month pilot test of this project, in collaboration with virtual supermarket Deliberry and courier company Glovo, will be carried out in two car parks managed by Saba in the city of Barcelona… The customer leaves their car keys with Saba staff, who are responsible for accompanying the delivery person, identifying the car and placing the order in it. In the future, the aim is to make the process easier using technology that enables the service providers to access cars using fingerprint recognition supported by the app itself.”
Samsung launches Samsung Rewards, a new loyalty program of Samsung Pay — Samsung Spain (translation) — “Users who make purchases with Samsung Pay will receive Samsung Rewards points each time they make a purchase. The accumulated points will be valid for one year and can be exchanged directly for exclusive gifts.”
Spanish luxury winemaker Barbadillo has added promotional neck collars equipped with NFC tags to 126,000 bottles of its best-selling Castillo de San Diego white wine for a nationwide campaign that gives customers the chance to win a €1,000 (US$1,172) prize... More
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