Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Consumers may soon be able to collect rewards at smart recycling points and kerbside collections for recycling plastic bottles and other reusable packaging fitted with NFC labels that uniquely identify each item... More
Customers of all six state-owned Chinese banks can now apply for test versions of the banks’ digital yuan wallets as the country rolls out the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme in the city of Changsha. More
The number of registered mobile money accounts globally grew by 13% in 2020 to reach a total of more than 1.2bn, according to research by the GSMA... More
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The Bank of Thailand and the State Bank of Vietnam have launched an interoperable cross-border payments system that will enable Thai visitors to Vietnam and Vietnamese visitors to Thailand to make QR code-based payments for goods and services using their mobile banking app. More
Consumers in Australia can now make payments for in-store purchases using a digital card issued by buy now, pay later (BNPL) service Afterpay that lets them automatically pay for their purchases in four equal instalments... More
Visa has become the first major payments network to settle a transaction with an issuing or acquiring partner by exchanging funds in digital currency rather than in traditional fiat currency... More
Apple Pay has rolled out in South Africa with support for Visa cards issued by Absa and Discovery Bank and for Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards issued by Nedbank... More
Commuters in Sydney, Australia, will soon be able to use a digital version of their Opal transit card to pay for taxi fares and rideshare services and earn credit towards the cost of public transportation services they then transfer to... More
The total value of euro banknotes in circulation rose during the Covid-19 pandemic from €1.3tn (US$1.5tn) at the end of 2019 to €1.4tn (US$1.7tn) at the end of 2020, the European Central Bank (ECB) reports... More
Passengers travelling on Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) services in India can now top up their contactless AutoPe DMRC transit cards at the network’s automatic fare collection gates... More
Visitors to the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida can now test a contactless biometric system that enables them to gain entry to the attraction by verifying their identity with their face... More
Apple may incorporate iris scanning functionality in a forthcoming head-mounted display (HMD) mixed-reality headset that will enable users to authenticate their identity when using Apple Pay to make payments via the “mostly virtual reality device”, according to MacRumors. More
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Children in Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border in the USA can now take part in a contactless Easter egg hunt by looking for special eggs with scannable QR codes that have been hidden in parks, family-friendly businesses and public locations across the city... More
Google has joined with secure element (SE) vendors to launch the Android Ready SE Alliance to accelerate the adoption of new use cases for Android devices including digital car keys and mobile IDs... More
Passengers using buses operated by the Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland can now use their credit card to purchase and store digital bus tickets on their Android or iOS smartphone... More
The European Council has endorsed plans to introduce a fully integrated retail payment system that will enable instant cross-border payments and financial transfers throughout the European Union. More
Visitors to Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island can now use their face to gain access to the resort island’s Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld and Warner Bros World theme parks and to make contactless payments at retail and dining outlets that support its face recognition technology... More
The total value of contactless transactions made using payment services provided by smartphone and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will reach more than US$1tn in 2022, a rise of 377% on 2019, Kaleido Intelligence predicts... More
Samsung Pay will go live in Slovakia and the Czech Republic this year, according to media reports in both East European countries. More
