Auction site eBay has added NFC tags that enable buyers to authenticate their purchases with a tap of their smartphone to 1.5m pairs of sneakers worldwide since adding sneakers to the products eligible for its Authenticity Guarantee service in 2021... More
Santa Maria Regional Transit (SMRT) in the US has launched a mobility app that enables passengers on the Californian city’s public transport network to make contactless payments for all available fare options and validate their ticket or pass by scanning a QR code at an on-board validator... More
Researchers based at Northwestern University in the US have developed ‘flying microchips’ or microfliers the size of a grain of sand that incorporate micro-sensors and use NFC to harvest ambient energy and transfer data to a smartphone, tablet or computer... 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
Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) in the US state of Wisconsin is to roll out a fare payment system that will enable users to pay for bus rides, scooter hire, ride sharing and other transport options across the region using a mobile app, a reloadable transit smartcard or their contactless credit card... More
Merchants in the US will soon be able to accept contactless payments on their iPhone via a “partner-enabled iOS app” without needing to connect their device to a payment terminal or other additional hardware, Apple has announced... More
South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the US is to upgrade its SEPTA Key transit card to enable cardholders to pay fares for more than one passenger per journey as well as roll out mobile ticketing “later this year”... More
Nearly 20% of all in-person Visa card transactions in the US are now contactless, with that proportion rising to more than 25% in Los Angeles, Detroit, Orange County, Miami and Salt Lake City, over 30% in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, and reaching 45% in New York, according to the card network’s Q1 2022 earnings call... More
Apple users working at the 7 World Trade Center office building in New York in the US can now gain access to the building, their workplace and shared amenities with a tap of their NFC-enabled iPhone or Apple Watch using a digital employee badge stored in Wallet... More
Passengers on Princess Medallion Class cruise ships can now use their Princess Medallion NFC-enabled wearable device to make contactless payments at on-shore merchants that support leisure travel giant Carnival Corporation’s Medallion Pay payments service... More
Total global revenues from the provision of digital identity services and technologies, including third-party and civic identity apps, centralised identity schemes and digital ID verification, will exceed US$53bn in 2026 compared with US$26bn in 2021, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
One in two in-person transactions authorised, cleared and settled through Mastercard’s payment processing services worldwide during Q4 2021 were contactless, up from “approximately” one in three in the period prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures revealed at the card network’s Q4 earnings call... More
The US Federal Reserve has published a study examining the potential benefits and risks of issuing an American central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the first step in a public consultation on the possible future issuance of a digital dollar... More
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US has released a public service announcement (PSA) warning that “cybercriminals are tampering with QR codes” in order to steal data and funds and is advising consumers to “practice caution” when using them... More
Public transport users in Washington DC in the US who add a SmarTrip transit card to Apple Wallet or Google Pay will be credited with 10 free 45-minute rides on the region’s public bicycle share scheme... More
One in four consumers globally expect to switch to making cashless payments only within the next two years (25%), while one in two say it will happen in the next 10 years (53%) and 16% say they already solely make digital payments, a survey of consumers and merchants in nine markets worldwide has found... More
Visitors to SK Group’s Green Forest Pavilion at this year’s CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in the US were able to follow a “Net Zero journey” and access video, audio and augmented reality (AR) content about carbon reduction technologies and the environment... More
Apple Pay is now available in 60 countries and regions worldwide, with support from nearly 9,000 partner banks, following the service’s expansion to nine new markets — including Colombia, Israel and Mexico — during 2021, Apple reports... More
Passengers disembarking from international cruise ships at the US port of New Orleans in Louisiana can now verify their identity on entry to the country using biometric face recognition technology rather than by presenting physical documents to immigration officers... More
Banks in India, Poland, Iraq, Mexico, Lebanon and Egypt are among those set to trial biometric payment cards that enable customers to authenticate contactless payments with their fingerprints... More