PARTNER NEWS: Host card emulation (HCE) specialist SimplyTapp has closed a US$6m Series B funding round... More
Android
Softcard to be on 100 phones by year’s end
US carrier joint venture Softcard’s NFC mobile payments service will be available on more than 100 devices by the end of the year... More
Nationwide adds wearable banking
Customers of the UK’s Nationwide bank can now see their account balance in real time on an Android Wear smartwatch... More
French banks to pilot HCE payments
Visa Europe has partnered with payment and transaction services provider Worldline to pilot NFC mobile payments using host card emulation (HCE) with four French banks in the first quarter of 2015... More
Watchdata launches wearables that support NFC payments
Singapore-based Watchdata Technologies has unveiled Sharkey, a wearable device that supports NFC payments and comes in two form factors — a smartwatch or a wristband... More
Windows Phone gets Softcard NFC payments
Windows Phone users with AT&T in the US can now make NFC payments by downloading a new Softcard app from the Windows Phone Store... More
Amex adds tokens and HCE
American Express has announced the US launch of American Express Token Service, a suite of solutions enabling traditional card account numbers to be replaced with tokens for mobile, online, in-store and NFC payments... More
Visa CEO identifies mobile payment as major growth driver
Mobile payments will be a “great driver” for Visa, CEO Charles Scharf has told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings call, and Apple Pay is just the beginning... More
McDonald’s adopts Softcard
McDonald’s 14,000 restaurants and drive-thru locations across the US have begun accepting Android NFC mobile payments following a successful pilot program with carrier joint venture Softcard that began in 2013... More
Chicago to get NFC mobile ticketing in 2016
Travellers across Chicago will be able to pay for rides on all three transit systems including Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) trains and buses, Metra commuter rail and Pace suburban buses with a mobile app next year, and “with a few taps on their mobile devices” from early 2016... More
Beep’nGo hits 5m downloads
Mobeam’s mobile coupon and offer app Beep’nGo has now surpassed five million downloads to compatible Android devices... More
Android 5.0 SDK now available
The Android 5.0 SDK is now available to developers ahead of the scheduled launch of Android 5.0 ‘Lollipop’ in November... More
Square lets customers make P2P payments via BLE
Square has added a feature to its Square Cash app that lets users leverage Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to make payments to anyone nearby, as well as an order ahead service for users of its Android and iOS apps... More
New Zealand banks and carriers to begin Semble NFC wallet rollout in November
TSM NZ, the NFC payments joint venture between New Zealand’s carriers and the Paymark payments network, has announced a new brand name, a November date for its first trials — and a marketing partnership with Samsung... More
RBC expands cloud-based NFC wallet to BlackBerry and Virgin
Royal Bank of Canada’s cloud-based NFC wallet is now available to Virgin Mobile subscribers and to customers with a BlackBerry Z10 or Z30 mobile phone, the bank has announced... More
BBVA reports 250,000 mobile wallet users
Spain-based banking group BBVA has signed up 250,000 customers for its BBVA Wallet service and is to expand availability to the US, Mexico and Chile this year... More
Broadcom offers IoT developer kit
Chip maker Broadcom has introduced Wiced Sense, a developer kit designed “to enable developers to rapidly prototype ideas and concepts for IoT devices and applications.”... More
Amazon Wallet teams up with Blackhawk
Amazon is working with prepaid specialist Blackhawk Network on its new Amazon Wallet service, which lets Android and Fire users store gift cards and loyalty cards on their mobile phone... More
Amazon releases mobile wallet app for Android
Amazon Wallet, an Android app that lets users store gift cards and loyalty cards on their mobile phone, is now available to download from Google Play and the Amazon Appstore... More
Westpac trials HCE mobile payments in New Zealand
Westpac has begun a host card emulation (HCE) pilot in New Zealand, enabling customers’ credit and debit card details to be securely stored in the cloud and then used at the point of sale to make mobile payments on their Android NFC device... More