Handset maker Huawei is to launch its own mobile payment service in China in cooperation with Bank of China... More
Archive: News in brief
Verizon removes Samsung Pay from Galaxy handsets?
US mobile network operator Verizon is shipping the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge without support for Samsung Pay, according to an Android Police report... More
Suretap goes live with loyalty
Users of the Suretap NFC mobile wallet can now earn and redeem loyalty points as a result of a partnership between the Canadian mobile wallet provider and the Points loyalty network announced in November 2015... More
Square drops contactless for Australia launch
Mobile POS provider Square has launched in Australia, enabling retailers across the country to accept credit and debit card payments using their mobile phones... More
Ant Financial seeks US$3bn in funding
Alipay parent Ant Financial is planning to raise up to 20bn yuan (US$3.1bn) in its current funding round at a valuation of more than $50bn, according to The Wall Street Journal... More
PowaTag sold to investors
Mobile payments platform PowaTag has been sold to a consortium led by entrepreneur Ben White, administrator Deloitte has confirmed, following news that its parent company Powa Technologies went into administration last month... More
CU Wallet offers Mogl cashbacks
The 120 credit unions using the CU Wallet platform to support their mobile payment services can now offer customers up to 30% cashback on purchases at “thousands of merchants” through rewards program provider Mogl... More
Amex patent turns reward points into virtual currency
American Express is exploring a system that would let its customers use reward points for purchases in third-party digital wallets, according to a newly published patent application... More
Samsung Pay to enable deposits at South Korean ATMs
Samsung Pay users in South Korea will soon be able to both deposit and withdraw money from the ATMs of Woori Bank, Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea and NH Nonghyup Bank... More
NEC develops ear shape biometrics
NEC has unveiled a biometric technology that uses the resonation of sound determined by the shape of human ear cavities to authenticate the identity of individuals... More
Chinese consumers register 3m cards to Apple Pay in 48 hours
Chinese shoppers activated 3m bank cards with Apple Pay within two days of the mobile payment service’s launch, according to China Merchants Bank... More
Apple Pay adds 27 US banks
Apple has added a further 27 banks and credit unions to its list of Apple Pay supporting financial institutions in the US... More
NFC World is now available in Slack
Slack users can now get breaking news from NFCW delivered into their favourite news channel... More
MasterCard to include Daon technology in selfie pay service
MasterCard is to make use of mobile biometric technology provider Daon’s IdentityX Platform as one of the authentication technologies for MasterCard Identity Check, the ‘selfie pay’ service it is rolling out to the US, Canada and parts of Europe this year... More
Madrid pilots contactless ticketing
Commuters in Madrid are piloting contactless bank card payments on 33 buses across two bus lines as a result of a partnership between EMT, which operates the city’s bus network, and MasterCard, Banco Santander and Santander Elavon... More
Apple Pay tops US merchant mobile wallet requests
Nearly half of US point of sale merchants (44%) are using or have requested information about mobile wallet solutions and 67% of those wanted Apple Pay, an investor note by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reported by Barron’s reveals... More
Czech buses get contactless ticketing
Commuters in the Czech Republic can now pay for bus fares using their contactless payment cards through a partnership between transport network BusLine and MasterCard... More
Analyst compares global take-up of key mobile payment services
Apple Pay has attracted 12m monthly users globally since its launch in October 2014, while Google’s Android Pay has attracted 5m monthly users since becoming available in September 2015 and Samsung Pay has also attracted 5m monthly users, according to research by Crone Consulting which has been reported by Bloomberg... More
Google reports on US Android Pay adoption
Android Pay has averaged 1.5m new registrations each month in the US since the mobile payment service’s launch in September 2015, Google has revealed... More
Wells Fargo adds support for Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay now includes support for Wells Fargo credit and debit cards, resulting in the mobile payment service supporting cards from 70 banks and credit unions covering more than 70% of the US credit and debit card market... More