Lancashire Cricket becomes first organisation to activate blockchain secure ticketing — Lancashire Cricket — “Lancashire Cricket is leading the way in ticketing technology after becoming the first organisation in the UK, in any industry, to activate blockchain secure mobile tickets for all domestic and international fixtures at Emirates Old Trafford in 2020. The club will be using TIXnGO, a new blockchain mobile tickets platform, after successful trials took place during the 2019 season.”
- PayPal fixes Google Pay integration exploit
- Singapore to pilot hands-free transit ticketing
- Amazon opens cashierless grocery store
- Mattel to expand its Hot Wheels ID NFC toy range
- Apple to let vehicle owners share NFC car keys via Messages
Kansas City Chiefs issue NFC tickets to premium suite guests
Super Bowl LIV winners the Kansas City Chiefs have installed NFC ticketing in the premium suites at their Arrowhead Stadium, enabling fans to receive tickets directly on their Android or Apple mobile phones and then tap to enter their suites using NFC... More
Worldline to acquire Ingenico for €7.8bn
Worldline to acquire Ingenico — Worldline — “This transaction would combine two premier companies to create the world’s number four player in payment services with circa 20,000 employees in approximately 50 countries… Upon closing, the new combined group would offer best-in-class payment services to nearly 1m merchants and 1,200 financial institutions.”
Mercer University reports on iPhone NFC ID adoption
Mobile student ID coming soon to Android devices — The Cluster — “Eight months after the launch of a mobile Bear Card for Apple devices, associate vice president for auxiliary services Ken Boyer said the digital credential will become available for Android devices in the second quarter of 2020… Boyer said 3,198 students, faculty and staff have enabled the digital ID since. The Office of Auxiliary Services anticipates that 2,500 more users will sign up once the Android option is available.”
NXP leverages NFC for easy pairing in new Bluetooth SoC
NXP delivers new Bluetooth microcontroller intelligence with value-added NFC peripheral — NXP — PARTNER NEWS — “By tapping an IoT device based on the QN9090T to a smartphone, tablet or other NFC reader device, a BLE connection can be quickly established, greatly simplifying the pairing process. The built in NFC NTAG eliminates the need for the tag to be powered and creates additional opportunities for diagnostics or device commissioning in stages of the device life cycle.”
Visa CEO shares contactless, tokenization, transit and secure remote commerce adoption data
Data on the latest adoption rates for contactless transactions, tokenization, transit payments and secure remote commerce has been made available by Visa CEO Al Kelly — along with details of the revenue model to be used by Plaid, which Visa is to acquire for $5.3bn... More
Miami-Dade launches mobile ticketing app that rewards passengers for watching ads
The Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) has launched an app that lets passengers earn loyalty points that they can then exchange for free travel when they view or interact with personalised ads... More
Google lets developers build their own NFC security keys
Developers and researchers can now make their own Fido-compliant NFC, Bluetooth and USB hardware security keys using new open source software developed by Google... More
IBM patents self-aware cryptocurrency token
IBM awarded patent for ‘self-aware token’ — Coindesk — “The patent outlines a ledger-based payments system that could make it easier for individual users, businesses and governments to track and trace transactions made using a cryptocurrency. Dubbed the ‘self-aware token’, it is designed to record all transaction data when not being used on a payments platform IBM patented in 2012. When the token rejoins the platform ecosystem at a later stage, it automatically uploads data from any ‘off-line transactions’.”
Digital bank replaces interest rates with reward points
Texas Capital Bank launches all-digital Bask Bank, offering savers American Airlines AAdvantage miles — Texas Capital Bank — “Traditional savings accounts return pennies on the dollar. Bask Bank changes that by rewarding savers with miles, enhancing their saving potential and providing them with choice, value, and the opportunity to experience travel and more through the AAdvantage program. Bask Bank will also offer several ways to earn AAdvantage bonus miles, including an account opening bonus of 5,000 AAdvantage miles, a feedback bonus and a variety of balance bonuses.”
Apple to launch Ultra Wideband item tracking tags?
Kuo: Apple to launch AirTags, small charging mat, new iPads and Macs, high-end headphones, and more in first half of 2020 — MacRumors — “Last year, MacRumors uncovered evidence of Apple working on Tile-like item tracking tags in iOS 13 code, including a potential ‘AirTags’ name. As with iPhone 11 models, Kuo believes the tags will support Ultra Wideband, which would likely make it possible to locate the tags with much greater accuracy than Bluetooth LE and WiFi.”
Cambodia to launch blockchain-based national QR payments platform
NBC’s digital payments to go live in next few months — The Phnom Penh Post — “The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will launch a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer payment and money transfer platform in the next few months… Bakong, essentially a quasi-form of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), was launched on a trial basis in July and will be operational within the present fiscal quarter… Bakong will help set a national standard for QR code usage, which will be integrated with Asean equivalents.”
Mastercard rolls out Cash Pick-Up service that lets anyone send cash to ATMs
Mastercard wants to give you fast access to cash — using only your cell phone — CNBC — “Consumers can withdraw money sent by friends and family, get cash in emergency situations (in the event of a lost bank card, for example), and redeem rebates or other cash rewards that corporations have historically sent via mail… Users receive a text message with an order amount, secret code and link showing the nearest ATM from which they can withdraw money — up to US$500 per order and $3,000 a day.”
Payments Canada adds support for delayed debit card authorization
New Payments Canada rule enables wider use of digital debit payments — Payments Canada — “With delayed authorization, a merchant can now opt to provide a service before a payment transaction is authorized. In the example of a transit operator, this will support a passenger being able to pay and ride without having to wait for payments authorization. Beyond transit, Rule E5 is designed to enable other possible use cases, for example payment at parking meters, payment for on-board purchases (airline/train/ferry) and payment for vending machine purchases.”
Google to sunset Payment Request API
Rethinking Payment Request for iOS Chrome — Google — “The best way to enable more seamless and secure payments on the web is to enable an interoperable ecosystem, where digital wallets can bring their best experience to the web. This means shifting focus to the Payment Handler API, which is an emerging W3C standard that allows third party payment handlers, which can be either native mobile apps or progressive web apps, to integrate with the browser to handle Payment Requests… This shift in focus means that we will eventually sunset Chrome’s built-in ‘basic-card’ payment handler.”
Apple Pay revenue and transactions ‘more than double’ in the year
Apple Pay revenue and transactions have “more than doubled year-over-year with the run rate exceeding 15bn transactions a year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed. More
UK consumers warming to face biometrics
A survey has found that while half of Brits are happy to unlock their phones with their faces, only a third trust the technology to authorise a payment... More
Poste Italiane adds QR code payments to Postepay app
Italy’s national postal service provider has added QR code-based payments to its mobile payments app, to support the country’s transition from cash to digital payments... More
Piedmont vineyard picks NFC screw caps to fight fakes
A family-run vineyard in Italy has become the first in Europe to use NFC-equipped screw caps on its bottles to protect buyers from counterfeit wines... More
World Economic Forum publishes central bank digital currency toolkit
The World Economic Forum has released a Policy‑Maker Toolkit for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), designed “to help central banks evaluate, design and potentially deploy CBDC”... More
