US mobile payments provider Square has now processed a total of one billion payment transactions... More
USA
Softcard to be on 100 phones by year’s end
US carrier joint venture Softcard’s NFC mobile payments service will be available on more than 100 devices by the end of the year... More
Dairy Queen expands mobile loyalty and payment test
US fast food chain Dairy Queen has expanded pilot testing of its myDQ mobile loyalty, offers and payments service to more than sixty locations in the states of Colorado and Nebraska ahead of a planned rollout of the solution to all its 4,500 US franchise locations... More
MCX CEO confirms plans to include bank cards in CurrentC wallet
MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson has outlined more of the consortium’s plans for its CurrentC mobile wallet in a keynote presentation at the Money2020 event in Las Vegas, confirming that banks will be able to add open loop payment cards to the service when it goes live in 2015... More
Tip.ly uses face recognition to let users leave tips with their phone
Startup Tip.ly has launched Face Tips, a service that lets users tip service workers by simply taking a photo of the server’s face with a mobile phone. The recipient then has fourteen days to log in to the service using any camera-equipped device to submit their photo and bank details to safely collect their payment. More
Small US businesses have no POS upgrade plans
Just 4% of independent business owners in the US are aware they have a contactless POS terminal and 14% are not sure, Newtek Business Services’ latest SBA Market Sentiment Survey has revealed — and only 7% say they plan to upgrade so they can make contactless NFC payments like Apple Pay available to their customers, while 93% say they have no plans to do so... More
Windows Phone gets Softcard NFC payments
Windows Phone users with AT&T in the US can now make NFC payments by downloading a new Softcard app from the Windows Phone Store... More
Google Wallet gets automatic top-ups
An new version of Google Wallet, now available for Android and iOS devices, offers additional ways to add money to a user’s account balance... More
MCX to open up “in months”
The exclusivity rule that prevents members of MCX from accepting other mobile payments services in their stores will expire in “months, not years,” CEO Dekkers Davidson has told Re/Code... More
Chase and Vantiv to offer Poynt POS
Chase Paymentech and Vantiv, two of the largest payment processors in the US, have signed up to distribute the former head of Google Wallet’s new Poynt POS terminal to their merchant bases... More
Apple Pay contract leaked
The full 19-page contract that banks wishing to offer Apple Pay to their cardholders must sign in order to take part has been leaked to Digital Transactions... More
Starbucks to accept Microsoft Band wearable payments
Starbucks is to begin accepting payments from customers wearing the new Microsoft Band smart bracelet... More
Target includes Apple Pay in mobile app
MCX member Target has integrated Apple Pay into its mobile app but is not accepting payments via Apple Pay in its stores, the retailer has told NFC World+... More
Judge rules on fingerprint-locked smartphones
A Virginia Circuit Court judge has ruled that police officers cannot force criminal suspects to divulge mobile phone passwords but they can force them to unlock their phone with a fingerprint scanner, WSJ reports... More
Burger King to offer mobile orders and payments across the US
Burger King customers in the US will soon be able to order their meals ahead of arrival and pay for their orders using their mobile phone and a PayPal account... More
40% of North Americans use mobile payments
40% of US and Canadian consumers have now used their smartphone to make a payment at a merchant location, up from 16% two years ago, according to Accenture’s 2014 North America Consumer Payments Survey... More
BBVA adopts Dwolla for faster payments
US bank BBVA Compass has joined up with Dwolla to offer real-time payments to its account holders for US$0.25 per transaction... More
Starbucks claims a 90% share of the US mobile payments market
Starbucks accounted for more than 90% of all mobile transactions in the US last year, the coffee chain’s CEO Howard Schultz has revealed during a fourth quarter earnings call in which he also set out plans to continue to dominate the mobile payments space. More
Amex adds tokens and HCE
American Express has announced the US launch of American Express Token Service, a suite of solutions enabling traditional card account numbers to be replaced with tokens for mobile, online, in-store and NFC payments... More
Starwood Hotels picks Bluetooth for mobile room keys that work on smartphones and Apple Watch
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has unveiled a mobile keyless entry system that will allow guests to use smartphones to unlock rooms using Bluetooth at 150 hotels around the globe by early 2015. The service will also be available via an Apple Watch app when the new wearable device ships next year, the hotel chain has told NFC World+. More