A working group set up by seven central banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has laid out a set of ground rules for the successful issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)... More
Swedish consumers could be able to make and receive low-cost instant cross-currency transactions to and from any euro area country via the Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform once the Swedish kronor joins the platform in May 2022... More
Consumers living in remote parts of rural Sweden where conventional stores and supermarkets have closed down can now use their mobile phones to buy goods 24 hours a day at automated, unmanned grocery stores operated by Swedish retail start-up Lifvs... More
Countries with digitised and innovative economies are more likely to be developing central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects while those with a larger informal economy are tending to focus on creating retail CBDCs, a working paper published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reports... More
A new amendment to the Swedish Payment Services Act means that online merchants must now present non-credit options ahead of any options that involve the consumer taking out credit... More
PayPal users in 28 countries across the world are now able to use their PayPal app to make QR code-based mobile payments in stores — and standard seller transaction fees are being waived “for a limited time” for merchants using the new functionality... More
The contactless payments growth rate in the Nordic region has doubled during the first four months of this year, regional payments processor Nets reports, “as social distancing steers Nordic consumers away from chip and PIN”... More
Updated 24 August: Countries around the world are increasing the contactless transaction limit in a bid to combat the spread of Covid-19... More
Mastercard is now working with 29 countries across Europe and central Asia to implement increases to their contactless payment transaction limit, the payments network says... More
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
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
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
Riksbank develops an e-krona in a test environment — Riksbank — “During the first year of the e-krona pilot project, a technical platform will be developed with a user interface that enables, for instance, payment with the e-krona from a mobile phone, a card and a watch. The platform will also contain simulations of payment service providers, retail outlets and other parts of the Swedish payment system.”
The volume of transactions made using wearable devices has seen an eightfold increase in Europe over the past 12 months, Mastercard reports, while Australia tops the list of countries where most wearable payments are now being made.... 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
A group of seven mobile payments service providers with a combined user base of 25 million people in nine European countries have formed a new association to deliver “interoperability of the mobile payment systems across national borders”... More
The collaboration of six Nordic banks results in a joint KYC company — SEB Group — “The joint venture company is preparing for its first commercial launch in 2020. The company is autonomous and will initially offer KYC services to the market concerning large and medium-sized companies based in the Nordic region.”
Swedish P2P and online payments app Swish is moving into in-store payments with a pilot test of a Bluetooth box that can be added to merchants’ existing POS terminals to deliver “an NFC-like ‘tap and pay’ experience”... More
Customers of Swedbank and Nordea Bank in Sweden are now able to load a Mastercard onto any of a range of fashion watches offered by three local watch brands and then use it to make wearable payments at any Mastercard merchant... More
Google Pay is now live in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, with support from Jyske Bank, Nordea and Revolut in Denmark, Nordea, Revolut, Monobank, Storebrand Bank and Sparebanken Sør in Norway, Nordea, Revolut, Länsförsäkringar Bank and Sodexo in Sweden and Nordea, Revolut and Edenred in Finland... More
