British consumers made contactless transactions to the value of £25bn (US$30.6bn) last year, up from £7.75bn (US$9.48bn) in 2015, The UK Cards Association reports... More
Contactless payments tripled in the UK last year
United Kingdom
UK sees 250% rise in NFC mobile payments in stores
The number of mobile transactions as a percentage of all in-store transactions has grown by 247% in the UK over the last year, analysis of transaction data and a consumer survey conducted by payments processor Worldpay has found. Workers paying for lunch on the go and payments for drinks in bars are the main drivers of the increase in transaction volume. More
Mastercard adds bar tab feature to Qkr! mobile payments app
Mastercard has unveiled a new feature for its Qkr... More
Google Assistant comes to more Android phones
Google Assistant will be made available to all phones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating systems, Reuters reports... More
Barclaycard adds contactless payments to watches and fashion jewellery
Barclaycard’s bPay contactless payment technology is to be embedded into a range of high street jewellery and watch brands across the UK through new partnerships with fashion jewellery retailer DCK Group and payment technology provider for the watches and jewellery industry Tappy Technologies... More
Metro Bank adds Android Pay in UK
Metro Bank in the UK is now offering support for Android Pay... More
UK bank tests voice commands with Google Home
Starling Bank, a UK mobile-only bank, is testing an integration of its API with Google Home, the voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant... More
TfL and Barclaycard to extend contactless network
Transport for London (TfL) is aiming to extend contactless payments on its network to further areas outside of the capital, after Barclaycard announced it has retained its contract to provide payment processing solutions to TfL for at least another seven years... More
Jaguar brings in-car fuel payments to Shell service stations
Luxury car maker Jaguar has begun integrating a mobile payments system into its vehicles, allowing drivers to use PayPal or Apple Pay to pay for fuel at Shell service stations using an app and the touchscreen found inside their vehicle... More
Half of US and UK consumers want more chatbots
Nearly half of mobile users in the US and UK (49%) say they would like more conversational chatbot and/or SMS messaging options with brands, research released by OpenMarket says... More
Mobile to account for 28% of online retail spending in Europe this year
More than a quarter of all online retail sales across Europe (27.9%) will be done using a mobile device in 2017, with UK consumers spending more money in-store, online and in-app using mobile devices than any other Europeans, research released by VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) shows... More
Bus operator reports QR and NFC adoption stats
Bus passengers in the UK county of West Yorkshire are using QR codes and NFC at bus stops 10,000 times every week to retrieve travel information... More
Google unveils Android Wear 2.0 and new watch with support for NFC mobile payments
Google has officially unveiled Android Wear 2.0, the new version of its operating system for smartwatches, and two new watches from LG — one of which comes with NFC to support HCE mobile payments using Android Pay... More
PayPal launches Slack payments bot
PayPal customers in the US, UK, Australia and Canada can now send money to each other using a PayPal bot on team messaging service Slack... More
GoCardless warns customers after burglary
Fintech startup GoCardless has contacted customers to warn of possible data loss after a break-in at its London offices in January... More
Bluetooth rail ticketing service to include biometrics?
Fingerprint and iris scanning technology “could eventually” be incorporated into a Bluetooth and geolocation-based ticketing service to be piloted by UK rail firm Chiltern Railways in July 2017... More
Music fans pay for drinks with finger veins
Customers at London music venue Proud Camden can now pay for orders using Fingopay finger vein technology and get £10 cashback to spend on their next visit... More
Smart Benches offer Londoners chance to make contactless charity donations
Ten Smart Benches have been installed across London to enable passersby to donate £2 (US$3) to Cancer Research UK with a tap of their contactless debit or credit card. The Smart Bench network is currently being piloted in two boroughs in the city, with a further 90 benches to be permanently rolled out later this year. More
Liverpool gets own currency built with blockchain
The UK city of Liverpool has launched its own digital currency using blockchain technology supplied by Tel-Aviv-based digital wallet provider Colu... More
Young Brits adopting mobile wallets
Two thirds of 18- to 25-year-olds in the UK (64%) are using a mobile wallet, while only 14% have “no interest” in doing so, research released by social money transfer app Moneymailme reveals... More