The number of stores worldwide that enable customers to self-scan their purchases on their own smartphone or a device provided by the merchant rose by 10,000 during 2021 to reach a total of 46,000, but that total is set to more than triple and exceed 161,000 globally by 2027, according to Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
Google has begun rolling out a multipurpose digital wallet that enables users to store, use and present digital credentials such as identity cards and health passes as well as payment cards, transit and event tickets and hotel keys in 39 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia... More
Supermarket chain Aldi is trialling its first checkout-free contactless store in continental Europe in the Dutch city of Utrecht, enabling customers to enter the store by scanning an app, selecting items from the shelves and then leaving without needing to scan their purchases or use a conventional checkout... More
Dutch bank ING is to pilot a payments feature that uses ultra wideband (UWB) technology to enable consumers to make peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments to another user’s smartphone without needing to find, enter or exchange personal data such as their email address or phone number... More
An international team of researchers has developed flexible NFC extenders that enable the wearer to interact with NFC tags at a greater distance than has previously been possible, opening up the potential for hands-free NFC interactions in use cases ranging from exchanging contact details at a distance, entering a building while carrying shopping bags and accessing online instructions while carrying out physical exercise... More
Two in three Europeans (66%) would use the European Digital Identity Wallet (EDIW) that the European Union plans to start piloting in 2023, a survey has found... More
Merchants in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands can now accept contactless payments on a standard Android NFC smartphone or other mobile device using a software point of sale (sPOS) solution being rolled out by PayPal... More
The number of contactless card purchases made worldwide will increase by an average of 23% a year and reach a total of more than 522bn by 2026, up by more than 370bn on the 149bn recorded in 2020, according to a forecast by Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
The Digital Identity Working Group (DIWG), made up of digital identity specialists from eight Digital Government Exchange (DGX) member states across the world, has identified 11 core principles to support international collaboration on the development of mutually recognised and interoperable digital identity systems and infrastructure... More
Consumers in key markets around the world have switched from physical cash to digital and contactless payment methods at “a rate unprecedented” since the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) launched its Red Book of payment and settlement statistics in 2004, BIS says... More
The Netherlands Vehicle Authority (RDW) is to trial mobile one-day vehicle registration certificates that enable drivers importing a car to obtain and store the document they require on their mobile device in the first step towards the introduction of mobile driving licences in the country... More
Customers of ABN Amro in the Netherlands can now make contactless cash withdrawals from ATMs via their mobile banking app without needing to use their debit card... More
A “growing number” of Europeans would support the creation of national digital currencies with the specific aim of asserting “some monetary independence” from the European Union, according to a survey commissioned by Euronews... More
The South Korean parliament has passed a bill that will require companies such as Apple and Google to allow the use of payment services other than their own proprietary systems for the purchase of digital goods within their app stores... More
An Australian parliamentary committee has held a public hearing at which it heard evidence from representatives of leading Australian banks, payment services providers and other financial bodies on regulatory issues including whether companies such as Apple should be mandated to allow third-party payment apps access to a smartphone’s NFC chip... More
Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has tested a blockchain-powered technical solution for the use of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it says is capable of handling more than 300,000 simultaneous payments a second and enables payees to receive a payment in less than two seconds... More
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) is calling for amendments to current European Union legislation in order to ensure companies such as Apple provide payment apps with access to a smartphone’s NFC chip to give users a choice of in-store payment methods on their device... More
Portuguese supermarket chain Continente has opened its first autonomous cashierless store in Lisbon, enabling customers to use a QR code generated in the company’s Labs app to access the shop and automatically pay for their purchases from their mobile phone without needing to scan their goods or use a checkout... More
Customers of ABN Amro in the Netherlands can now use their Android devices to make payments with Google Pay from within the Dutch bank’s mobile app... More
The banks and other institutions backing the development of a unified payment systems for merchants and consumers across Europe have so far invested €30m in the European Payments Initiative, EPI chair Joachim Schmalzl has revealed... More
