American Express has confirmed that Apple Pay is set to launch in Canada on November 17, iPhone In Canada reports... More
Archive: News in brief
NFC necklace wins Unicef award
A necklace that stores electronic health data to track child immunization via NFC has been named joint winner of the Wearables for Good challenge run by Unicef, ARM and Frog... More
Bell ID updates HCE white paper
PARTNER NEWS: Bell ID’s Host Card Emulation: NFC’s Missing Link white paper, which has been downloaded more than 800 times from the NFC World+ Knowledge Centre since it was published in late 2014, has been updated to include an exploration of the tokenization process and an overview of prevailing deployment models for issuers... More
Otto pilots NFC product labels
Online retailer Otto Versand is to test the use of NFC product labels which let customers retrieve information such as manuals and explanatory videos as well as reorder parts. Otto Product Wizard Stickers will be tested with buyers of coffee machines in a few weeks, Heise reports. The pilot will continue for “several months”... More
Pebble Time watches get contactless payment straps
Wearable payments provider FitPay and connected watch maker Connectedevice have developed a smartstrap for the Pebble Time range of smartwatches that lets wearers make NFC payments... More
Westpac lets customers activate cards via mobile
Westpac customers in Australia can now switch on new credit or debit cards using their smartphone’s camera and the bank’s mobile banking app... More
Tencent reports 200m mobile payment users
More than 200 million customers have bound their bank cards to internet giant Tencent’s QQ Wallet and Weixin Pay mobile payment platforms, the company has revealed — but supporting them is proving costly... More
Apple doesn’t want to be a bank, says CEO
“Nobody wants to become a bank any more and we don’t want to become a bank,” Apple CEO Tim Cook has told the University Philosophical Society at Trinity College, Dublin during a visit this week, Ireland’s Independent newspaper reports... More
India’s Paytm moves into banking
Indian mobile wallet provider Paytm is to hire 3,000 people to roll out its payments bank services by the first quarter of next year... More
Noor Bank offers wearable payments in Dubai
UAE’s Noor Bank and Yvolv, a joint venture between Alibaba and Dubai holding company Meraas, have introduced Yvo, a mobile app that allows users to make in-store payments using mobile phones and wristbands... More
Samsung Pay offers $50 to new users
Samsung is offering a US$50 rebate to new users who add a card to Samsung Pay... More
Apple to add P2P payments to Apple Pay?
Apple is reportedly holding discussions with US banks about developing a payment service that would let users send money to one another from their phones through Apple Pay... More
Israeli bank adds NFC ATMs
Customers of Israel’s Bank Hapoalim can now withdraw cash from ATMs using their NFC mobile phones at the bank’s newly opened digital branch... More
NFC glucose meter launches
Medical products provider Nurse Rosie Products has begun offering an NFC glucose meter that lets diabetics access their blood glucose reading by tapping the meter against their NFC device... More
86% of TMG clients to offer Samsung Pay and Android Pay
Nearly nine in ten (86%) financial institution clients of The Members Group (TMG) plan to make Samsung Pay and Android Pay available to their customers... More
Shopkick installs BLE beacons to reward Vanity customers
Users of mobile marketing app Shopkick can now earn rewards via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons every time they walk into one of fashion retailer Vanity’s 150 US stores. “Shopkick will install two shopBeacon devices in every Vanity store,” Shopkick says... More
Biometrics for financial services to be worth US$657m by 2019
The market value of biometric identification for financial services applications will increase from US$123m in 2015 to US$657m in 2019, research from TrendForce predicts... More
Vodafone installs NFC touchpoints in 84 UK stores
Vodafone customers can now tap their phone against NFC touchpoints in 84 UK stores to access the Vodafone Start mobile hub... More
Samsung Pay to add P2P payments?
Korean startup Hankook NFC has reportedly applied for a patent for a hardware module that would allow consumers to use Samsung Pay to transfer money between devices and pay with a credit card... More
Credit card networks in “standoff” with Apple in Canada
Apple’s decision to launch Apple Pay in Canada with just the support of American Express “had less to do with Apple’s strategy for entering Canada specifically, and more to do with a global push that aims to negotiate by credit-card network rather than bank by bank,” a source has told The Globe and Mail... More