Visa and Saudi Mada partner to launch new mobile-based application, Mada Pay — Zawya — “Mada Pay is an Android-based mobile application that enables cardholders to make fast, easy and secure contactless mobile payments at NFC-enabled merchants throughout Saudi and abroad with KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]-issued Visa cards (credit and prepaid). Visa and Mada co-badged (debit and prepaid) cards can also be used with Mada Pay.”
Visa
Piraeus Bank picks Antelop as its mobile payments provider
PARTNER NEWS: Piraeus Bank, the largest card issuer in Greece, has selected Antelop Solutions as its long-term e-wallet and digital payments partner, enabling the bank to provide its customers with a large range of cutting edge mobile wallet and payments capabilities... More
Football fans use contactless for one in two transactions at World Cup stadiums
Visa data shows one fifth of purchases at 2018 Fifa World Cup use contactless technology — Visa — “Visa, the official payment services partner of Fifa, today released an analysis of foreign travellers’ spending during opening days of 2018 Fifa World Cup. The results found that in the 11 Russian host cities of the tournament, approximately one in every five (17%) purchases with Visa used contactless payment technology, including smartphones, bracelets and rings. In the stadiums themselves, the share of contactless payments was 54%, inclusive of purchases made by fans from Russia and abroad.”
Antelop adds Visa Token Service certification to its white label mobile wallet platform for banks and card issuers
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions has received certification from Visa as a Token Requestor-Token Service Provider (TR-TSP), enabling banks and card issuers to use its white-label multi-scheme SaaS solution to launch their own NFC mobile payment solutions based on Visa Token Service (VTS)... More
Apple Pay launches in Norway
Nordea launches Apple Pay in Norway, DNB stays focused on Vipps — Reuters — “Nordea Bank launched Apple Pay to its customers in Norway on Wednesday… Visa separately said Apple Pay will also be available to Norwegian customers at Santander Bank, and soon also at Sbanken. Norway’s biggest bank DNB said it had been in dialogue with Apple, but will so far not offer Apple Pay to its customers as it would rather concentrate on its self-made Vipps payment solution.”
US merchants increase support for NFC in stores, cut back on Apple Pay and Google Pay online
New survey finds fewer merchants accepting Apple Pay — Kount — “Support is up across the board for near field communication (up from 29% to 37%) and other mobile payments at the physical point-of-sale… Online merchant support for Apple Pay has gone down from 48% to 35%, Google Pay (previously Android Pay), is down from 38% to 25%, support for PayPal increased (from 48% to 64%) while 10% accept AliPay and 10% accept other e-wallets. The share of merchants who accept Samsung Pay, Visa Checkout, MasterPass, and Chase Pay all stayed constant from last year.”
Visa cuts transaction fees in India by up to 95%
Visa slashes fee on debit card payments, wants more small merchants on board — Economic Times — “In a note circulated among member banks recently, Visa said it would cut rates on debit card transactions by up to 95%… The largest quantum of decrease will apply to transactions under Rs 2,000 (US$29.57)… ‘Effectively, merchants and banks pay nothing for small value transactions. With this move, it should become more attractive for banks to deploy terminals at small shops and encourage debit card payments,’ said a senior banker.”
Starbucks unveils prepaid card that lets customers earn rewards at any Visa merchant
Starbucks and Chase introduce Starbucks Rewards Visa Prepaid Card — Starbucks — “Today, Starbucks and Chase announced the availability of the Starbucks Rewards Visa Prepaid Card, the first prepaid or debit product where you can earn Stars outside of Starbucks.”
NXP launches full-service NFC mobile wallet platform for wearable, mobile and IoT device makers
PARTNER NEWS: NXP’s new mWallet 2GO platform offers OEMs a pre-certified and validated turnkey payments solution and is being used by luxury brand Montblanc to add Visa and Mastercard payments capabilities to its watches, via its new Twin smart strap... More
Visa targets open banking with $100m investment fund
Visa announces fast track access to its network and $100m investment for European FinTechs — Visa — “The focus will be on supporting startup businesses that are innovating in the arena of open banking and those using emerging technologies that have the potential to create new secure, commerce experiences.”
Valitor picks Dejamobile to offer mobile payments and branded mobile wallets to clients
PARTNER NEWS: Payment solutions provider Valitor is to use Dejamobile’s cloud-based payments platform to provide its clients with the ability to add mobile payments and a branded mobile wallet to their services... More
‘Hardware failure’ to blame for Visa Europe service disruption
Visa service disruption — Visa — “The issue was the result of a hardware failure within one of our European systems… If you attempted a Visa transaction that did not complete as a result of this issue, you should not be charged. A small number of cardholders may have pending transactions that could be limiting their spending ability. We are working with your banks to resolve this.”
Italian merchants to pilot PIN-on-mobile payments
Ingenico and Nexi test in Italy an innovative PIN-on-mobile solution compliant with Visa and Mastercard requirements — Ingenico — “With PIN-on-mobile, card owners manually enter their PIN on a non PCI-PTS device owned by a merchant, such as a smartphone or tablet. The transactions are considered as ‘card present’… This solution will be on a six-month trial period and the pilot project will include 1000+ secure card readers (SCR) to read EMV and contactless bank cards.”
Australian banks launch Beem It P2P payments app
Big bank-backed Beem It launches Aussie payments app — ZDNet — “The Commonwealth Bank, NAB, and Westpac joined forces to create Beem It, allowing the real-time transfer of funds… The app enables sending and receiving money, with an interface reminiscent of a social media app… ‘It’s using Eftpos, and Visa debit card payment rails,’ Beem It chief product and development officer Deepesh Banerji said.”
Retailers raise concerns over card networks’ plans for a single buy button
Visa, Mastercard push for one-click ordering. Retailers say ‘not so fast’ — The Wall Street Journal — “Representatives of large retailers including Walmart Inc and Home Depot Inc met with federal regulators this week to raise concerns about a new online payment initiative that Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc are preparing to roll out… Retailers’ main concern with combining the buttons is that merchants won’t be able to route their debit card transactions to lower-cost networks.”
Translink adds mobile payments for transit users in Vancouver
Tap to Pay — Translink — “On May 22, our card readers will accept contactless Visa and Mastercard credit cards and Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. For customers without Compass Cards, this new feature will mean no more ticket line-ups, digging for exact change, or worrying about pre-calculating zones. You can tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card or mobile-payment method on card readers to pay your adult, cash fare. Note: card readers will not accept debit cards.”
PrivatBank brings Apple Pay to Ukraine
“The arrival of the world leading mobile payment technology on the Ukrainian market is a decisive stimulus for large and small businesses to actively switch to cashless technology,” says Alexei Shaban, retail business manager at PrivatBank, the first Ukrainian bank to make Apple Pay available to its customers... More
Visa CEO discusses how a single online buy button will work
Visa Inc at JP Morgan TMT Conference — Visa — “Some kind of buy button, yet to be defined and branded, it’ll open up a wallet, probably a card pre-selected — they can overwrite that — select their product and confirm their purchase… There’s some — a lot of — meetings going on, on things like branding and what will the actual button look like.”
Card networks to co-develop single buy button for online transactions
Shiny new button may help Visa, Mastercard and AmEx fight PayPal — Bloomberg — “Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc, the world’s largest card networks, told an industry conference they will combine their Visa Checkout and Masterpass payment options into a single button. Spokesmen for American Express Co and Discover Financial Services said their firms also will join the project… The new system will rely on Visa and Mastercard’s token technology.”
Royal Bank of Canada adds support for Samsung Pay
Samsung Canada teams up with RBC to expand Samsung Pay availability to Canadians — Samsung — “This latest announcement follows the expanded Canadian availability of Samsung Pay, with RBC joining existing Samsung Pay partners including CIBC, American Express Canada, ATB Financial, Interac Debit, Mastercard, Scotiabank and Visa Canada.”