Public transportation users in Sydney, Australia, are now able to use contactless bank cards, NFC phones or wearable devices to pay for travel across the entire Transport for New South Wales network, including bus services... More
Passengers using the subway and local trains in the Italian capital city of Rome can now use their contactless bank card to pay for the journeys they make each day — and can also opt to use their card as a replacement for their monthly travel pass... More
Apple Pay has added the country of Georgia to the list of nations where the mobile payments service is available... More
Merchants in Poland are to be the first to pilot a new service that enables them to accept contactless payments of any amount “via a smartphone or tablet, in the same way a traditional payment terminal functions but with no additional equipment”... More
Passengers using Miami-Dade Transit’s Metrorail service can now pay for their travel using a contactless card issued by Mastercard, Visa or American Express, make mobile payments using Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay or select to use Fitbit Pay to pay with a wearable device... More
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) says its new Omny open loop contactless payments system recorded its one millionth transaction on 8 August, “a remarkable milestone accomplished at a much higher usage rate than initially estimated”... More
Your smartphone will soon double as an Eftpos terminal as Quest partners with NAB and Visa — Quest — “Quest Payment Systems (Quest), in conjunction with NAB and Visa, has launched a trial which allows merchants to accept card payments using their Android smartphone. Customers simply tap the merchant’s phone with a contactless card or mobile wallet. No additional payment terminal hardware or dongle is required, allowing small businesses to start accepting payments quickly using their existing mobile device.”
Hack breaks your Visa card’s contactless limit for big frauds — Forbes — “To carry out their hack, the researchers used a specialised piece of hardware to intercept and insert messages in the communications between the card and the reader. For instance, they could tell the card that verification — like a PIN — wasn’t needed, even though the requested amount was more than £30. They then told the terminal that verification has already been made by another means.”
Visa sets sights on a ‘Cashless Japan’ with one year to go to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 — Visa — “At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Visa offered a payment-enabled ring to its Team Visa athletes. At the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Visa commercially sold wearable products, such as gloves and lapel pins, enabled to make payments over contactless payment readers. For Tokyo 2020, Visa is exploring payment innovations ranging from biometric payment authentication and wearables to new mobile applications which will include digitally-issued cards.”
Mobile payments app Payconiq wants to expand in Europe — Ecommerce News Europe — “Our solution is, unlike the well-known payment methods, not dependent on the credit card companies. I don’t see why we couldn’t become the European alternative to Visa or Mastercard. Technically, we are ahead of them.”
Tap Tap Cap! — Lothian — “From 24 July, our services will accept contactless payment with daily fare capping — a first for Scotland… Just tap your card on the reader when you board the bus and you will be charged an Adult Single fare. After three or more taps, the fare will be capped at our AdultDayTicket price.”
LG has launched its LG Pay mobile payments service in the US, enabling owners of its G8 ThinQ smartphone to make payments via NFC in stores equipped with a contactless POS terminal — and in stores with a magnetic stripe terminal using Wireless Magnetic Communication (WMC)... More
Unified cashless payment system rolled out at 500 hawker stalls across Singapore — The Straits Times — “The solution, provided by Nets, unifies payments from 23 providers, so dining customers can use different cashless payment options at a single payment terminal at a food outlet. This also saves hawkers the hassle of dealing with multiple e-payment firms. These include e-wallets like Singtel Dash and GrabPay, transport cards EZ-Link and Nets FlashPay, and credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard.”
Visa unveils instalment payment capabilities to give shoppers simple and flexible way to pay — Visa — “Visa’s instalment capabilities are changing the game by allowing issuers to leverage an existing payment account consumers already have and are familiar with, instead of asking them to submit to a credit check, download an app or open another line of credit,” said Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, global head of issuer and consumer solutions, Visa. “We expect instalments to become a foundational method of payment at checkout for both domestic and cross-border commerce payment transactions.”
The NBK Visa Infinite Privilege Credit Card will be offered exclusively to the bank’s private banking customers, and by invitation only, once regulatory approval for the product has been received... More
Animation, sound and vibration – How Visa is reinforcing consumer trust in a changing payments world — Visa — “Visa today announced that its sensory branding suite is live at more than one million points of sale in 25 countries. The suite is comprised of sound, animation and haptic vibration brand cues that occur with a Visa payment transaction.”
The Libra Association — Libra — “Libra is a global, digitally native, reserve-backed cryptocurrency built on the foundation of blockchain technology. People will be able to send, receive, spend, and secure their money, enabling a more inclusive global financial system… The Libra Association is made up of a group of diverse organizations from around the world… This initial group of organisations will work together to finalize the Libra Association’s charter and will become the association’s Founding Members upon its completion.”
BofA jumps on tap-to-pay bandwagon as NYC’s subway moves forward — Bloomberg — “The lender will send 4m contactless cards this month to customers in New York, Boston and San Francisco who have Visa debit or credit cards… It plans to measure usage in those markets before deciding on a broader rollout at the beginning of next year.”
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions has launched an integrated onboarding, authentication and mobile payments platform for Android and iOS devices that lets both traditional and challenger banks combine “best-in-class” end-to-end security with a user friendly, PSD2-compliant, mobile-first consumer experience... More
BBVA builds a global payment platform for the future — BBVA — “BBVA Group has developed a platform to facilitate mobile payments across all the countries in its footprint. The platform developed by BBVA connects to Visa and Mastercard directly from each country’s application and provides the data required to process digital transactions from a smartphone”