The TSM service for NFC payments being built by a joint venture between five Taiwanese carriers and prepaid card provider Easycard is to go live by the end of 2014, the partners have announced. A rival TSM backed by Taiwan’s financial institutions is also due to begin operations in December 2014. More
- Bank of China lets taxi drivers accept central bank digital currency payments on NFC mobile phones
- Juniper forecasts 25% increase in POS terminal transaction values by 2028
- STMicroelectronics launches NFC tag chip with elliptic curve cryptography
- NFC Forum survey finds majority of consumers now prefer making payments with their mobile phone
- Hello, NFCW readers!
Clear Channel launches NFC advertising in the US and Canada
Out-of-home advertising giant Clear Channel’s Connect interactive advertising platform is now available in 29 US and Canadian markets. Bluetooth beacons may also be added to the service “when client demand and consumer benefit arise”, the company says. More
Apple Japan adds digital gift card
Apple has introduced a digital version of the iTunes gift card in Japan that replaces the need for customers to buy a physical card... More
Google Wallet adds support for gift cards and P2P payments
Google Wallet users can now store gift cards on their mobile phone and redeem them electronically in stores. Users can also send money requests to friends, make debit card payments free of charge and access a Spanish language version of the app if they have activated Spanish language settings on their mobile device. More
Base launches NFC payments and coupons in Germany
German customers of mobile network operator Base, part of the E-Plus group, can now make payments, store membership cards and redeem coupons with their NFC phone. More
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Visa Inc abandons digital wallet ambitions, Visa Europe to continue investing
Visa Inc is replacing its V.me digital wallet service with Visa Checkout, a new payment service that enables consumers in the US, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device, in “just a few clicks”. Visa Europe will continue to support V.me, however, and has pledged to invest a further €200 million in the digital wallet service. More
Online furniture retailer tests NFC in London showroom
Online furniture retailer Made.com is trialling an NFC shopping experience at its London showroom, enabling consumers to tap NFC tags to find out further information about items and email themselves a wishlist of products they have viewed. More
Alpha Bank launches NFC in Greece
Greece’s Alpha Bank has officially launched its Tap n Pay NFC mobile payment service... More
DMA warns on push messaging
One in three UK smartphone or tablet owners have never enabled push notifications on their connected devices and 78% of those who have enabled it would immediately delete the app or disable the notification if they were unhappy with the push notifications they receive, a DMA UK survey has found... More
PayPal adds loyalty cards to mobile wallet app
A new version of the PayPal iOS app has been released that enables users to store a wide range of loyalty cards within their mobile wallet. More
Toshiba offers dynamic NFC tag
Toshiba has introduced an NFC Forum Type 3 tag chip that includes a wired interface, enabling it to be used to collect and store dynamic data generated by “normally standalone products, such as calculators, clocks, and healthcare items”... More
Japan Airlines combines beacons and smartwatches to improve customer service at airports
Japan Airlines staff at Tokyo’s Haneda airport are being provided with smartwatches that work in conjunction with Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, to give management a way to assign staff more efficiently and respond more swiftly to customer requests. More
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Australian supermarket chain launches mobile wallet that works with NFC stickers
Australian supermarket chain Coles has launched the Coles Mobile Wallet, an iOS and Android app that works in conjunction with an NFC sticker to provide customers with a way to make mobile payments, manage their spending, collect loyalty points and access special offers. More
IDATE forecasts NFC phones and payments volumes
Twenty-eight million consumers will use their NFC phone to make a mobile payment in 2014, a new forecast by IDATE reveals, and the value of transactions conducted via NFC will rise from an estimated €4.6 billion in 2014 to €53.8bn in 2018. More
Marriott to deliver rewards to guests via BLE
Hotel chain Marriott is adding support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and special offers to its rewards program, enabling guests to access deals provided by Marriott hotels and other businesses during their stay. The new LocalPerks services will provide Marriott Rewards members with geo-targeted mobile offers during their visit to a particular hotel. More
Australian credit union launches HCE payments
CUA, Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution, has become the first in the Asia Pacific region to launch an NFC payments service that makes use of host card emulation (HCE) technology. More
Singapore ups contactless spending
Singapore’s United Overseas Bank has reported a more than three-fold increase in contactless card transactions in the year to April 2014, with more than 500 contactless purchases now being made each day... More
1.75bn to use mobile banking
More than 1.75 billion mobile phone users will have used their device for banking purposes by the end of 2019, up from 800 million people this year, according to a new Juniper Research forecast... More
Brits turn to mobile for purchase decision making
Nearly half of all UK consumers with a tablet or smartphone (46%) now use mobile devices as their primary tool for telecoms purchase decision making, 39% for insurance and 33% for retail, according to new research from location ad platform xAd and call measurement technology provider Telmetrics. More
PayPal pays next day
PayPal is piloting Next-Day Settlement (NDS), a new service that cuts the time taken for transfers between a merchant’s PayPal account and their bank account from the usual three or four days to 24 hours... More