Chinese consumers made an average of three mobile payments a day during 2020, while 98% of the Chinese population consider mobile payments to be their most frequently used transaction method, an increase of five percentage points on last year, a new survey reveals... More
The governments of Denmark and Sweden have both announced that they are to develop and introduce digital vaccine certificates that will enable residents to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19... More
Barclays bank account holders in the UK can now automatically receive an itemised digital receipt in their banking app every time they use their debit card to make an in-store or online purchase from a retailer or food outlet that has signed up to support the service... More
The total value of the global plastic cards market has fallen by US$3bn over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number manufactured worldwide falling by 19.7% from 37.1bn in 2019 to 29.8bn in 2020, according to the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA). More
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Apple is to let Apple Watch users unlock their iPhone using Face ID while they are wearing a mask, without having to enter an additional passcode... More
High school students at Magdalene Catholic College in Sydney, Australia, are to trial RFID transit ticketing tags that come with an operating distance of up to two metres, enabling an on-board reader to detect students automatically as they walk onto a bus... More
US supermarket chain Kroger is to pilot its first all self-checkout grocery store in Dallas, Texas, enabling customers to scan and pay for their purchases without needing to go through a cashier-staffed checkout lane... More
Public transportation users in the US state of Ohio’s Greater Dayton area can now use their mobile phone to make capped contactless fare payments from a stored value account, rather than having to purchase tickets or select a fare in advance... More
Amazon is enabling customers at three more of its Amazon Go outlets in Seattle, USA, to use a contactless palm scanning device to gain access to the store and pay for their purchases with their palm print... More
Android users will be able to read and write NFC tags straight from web apps with the release of Chrome 89, the upcoming version of Google’s web browser, next month... More
More than four-fifths of the world’s central banks (86%) are engaged in “some form of work” on a central bank digital currency (CBDC), up from “about one third” in 2019, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey... More
Passengers on public transportation services in the US city of Los Angeles can now add their TAP transit card to their Android smartphone and make contactless fare payments on the LA Metro and 25 other TAP-enabled transit agencies across LA County... More
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing to increase the limit for single contactless payments in the country from £45 (US$62) to £100 (US$137) and the limit for cumulative contactless transactions from £130 (US$179) to £200 (US$274)... More
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Nearly one in two Americans (46%) are most likely or definitely interested in mobile payment options for public transit ticketing “for a safer mass transit journey”, a survey of consumers in 28 countries around the world has found... More
Customers of Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart can now use SuperCoin reward points earned by shopping on the platform to make in-store purchases at retail outlets across the country by scanning a QR code at participating merchants... More
At least eight major banks, including Hong Kong-based China CITIC Bank, have now introduced or are in the process of introducing digital wallets that support China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to local media reports... More
International passengers arriving at US airports on American Airlines flights can now verify that they have had a negative Covid-19 test before travelling via a digital health passport on their mobile phone... More
Mastercard has announced new specifications for contactless payments that will offer quantum-resistant security via “next-generation algorithms and cryptographic key strengths”, enhanced privacy at the checkout and “help ensure any device truly can be a payment device”... More
PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics has released two new NFC Type 5 tags that combine NFC and RFID technology, Augmented NDEF and anti-tampering to let developers “leverage NFC contactless communication in new and imaginative ways for applications in consumer engagement, brand recognition, supply-chain management and access control”... More
BNP Paribas Visa Premier card customers will soon have the option of upgrading to a biometric payment card for an additional fee of €24 (US$29) a year, the French bank has revealed... More
