BofA Merrill introduces mobile wallets for business cardholders — Bank of America — “The millions of Bank of America Merrill Lynch cardholders who use our corporate, commercial and purchasing cards in the United States are now able to use Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay to make business purchases.”
Android Pay
Mobile contactless payment volumes to rise by 30% a year to 2022
451 Research’s Global Unified Commerce Forecast uncovers dramatic shifts in consumer spending patterns — 451 Research — “Mobile contactless payments will surpass $1 trillion globally in 2022. Sales executed via mobile contactless payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are growing at an impressive 30.7% CAGR through 2022. However, they will account for just 1.4% of global brick and mortar retail sales this year and reach only 3.8% by 2022.”
NFC ticketing pioneer Utah Transit Authority pulls support for contactless payments
General-purpose contactless payments continue to struggle on US transit systems — Digital Transactions — “The Salt Lake City-based Utah Transit Authority, a pioneer in contactless fare payments, has discontinued acceptance of general-purpose contactless mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. The UTA also no longer accepts contactless general-purpose payment cards, though such cards aren’t yet common in the United States. Only 112 riders on average used those forms of payment — far less than 1% of UTA’s average of 147,728 weekday boardings as of last December, according to a spokesperson.”
Singapore Airlines adds boarding passes to Google Pay
SIA introduces seamless access to mobile boarding passes via Google Pay — Singapore Airlines — “Customers travelling with Singapore Airlines (SIA) can now have the added flexibility of saving their mobile boarding pass on Google Pay, the digital wallet platform and online payment system developed by Google. This is the first time an airline in the Asia-Pacific region has such a capability on Google Pay.”
Diesel launches touchscreen smartwatch with NFC payments — and support for Alipay in China
Diesel takes wearables to new heights by introducing next generation touchscreen smartwatch — Diesel — “New features include heart rate tracking, NFC payment capabilities, and GPS tracking… Make purchases via your NFC-enabled smartwatch using Google Pay. Alipay available in China.”
Wear OS update lets smartwatch users make faster NFC payments
Google’s redesigned Wear OS might make smartwatches worth buying again — Mashable — “Previously, if you wanted to use Google Pay on your smartwatch, you’d need to launch the app, which was a multi-tap process. Now, you can make a payment much quicker. It’s not as quick as double-pressing the side button on the Apple Watch to fire up Apple Pay, but it’s way faster than the old way.”
Skagen includes NFC payments in Falster 2 smartwatch
Announcing Falster 2, Skagen’s next generation of touchscreen smartwatch — Skagen — “Falster 2 features integrated NFC technology, allowing users to make hands-free payments via Google Pay and access participating public transit systems using their device.”
Google adds bank loans to Google Pay in India
Google teams with HDFC Bank, ICICI, others for instant loans — Livemint — “Google Pay users will be able to access customised loans from HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd with minimal paperwork… Once users holding accounts with these banks accept the bank’s terms, the money will be transferred to their accounts.”
Google rebrands its Tez mobile wallet to Google Pay
Building services for every Indian, in their language — Google India — “Since launching our India-first payments app Tez last September, over 22 million people and businesses have used Tez to make over 750m transactions that are collectively worth over $30bn annually. We believe that many of the innovations and features we have pioneered with Tez will work in other countries. To take Tez beyond India, we will be unifying all of Google’s payment offerings globally. As a first step, Tez will now be called Google Pay.”
United flyers can now save boarding passes in Google Pay
Passengers flying with the world’s third largest airline can now store their boarding passes in the Google Pay mobile wallet app on their smartphones... More
Michael Kors releases Runway smartwatch with NFC payments
Runway ready — Michael Kors — “Our newest smartwatch: a storied style, now with Google Fit, heart rate tracking, mobile payments and swimproof capabilities. Customize the watch face or swap out the strap to make it your smartwatch, your way… Wave your wrist and go with Google Pay’s NFC technology.”
Fossil launches Gen 4 smartwatches with Google Pay support
Fossil unveils its most tech-packed touchscreen smartwatch to date — Fossil — “Exclusively compatible with Google Pay (transit and pay currently available in select countries), NFC prevents users from having to pull out their card every time they need to complete a transaction. With a few taps, your card is ready on watch to streamline any checkout experience. Security is an obvious consideration, and users set up a unique lock code on their watch to help protect from any identity or data theft.”
Google Pay goes live in Croatia
Google Pay comes to Croatia — The Dubrovnik Times — “Croatia is the first country in the Adriatic region offering Google Pay for payment in stores and on all Google platforms as of August 1, Google Adriatic said on Wednesday… Google is unveiling the service in cooperation with PBZ (Privredna Banka Zagreb), and at launch the service will be supported by PBZ online banking and the Visa Inspire card. There are plans to cooperate with other Croatian banks as well.”
TransLink reports fast uptake of contactless payments on Vancouver transit system
One millions taps — Tap to Pay hits a milestone — TransLink — “It’s been two months since we launched Tap to Pay and we are happy to share our customers have embraced this new payment option in a big way. To date, there have been 160,000 unique users who have tapped their contactless credit cards and mobile wallets… Customers can tap card readers with a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card, or a device with an Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay wallet.”
Stripe unveils DIY mobile and physical card issuing platform
An API for creating cards and new business models — Stripe — “Stripe Issuing is an end-to-end platform for quickly creating, distributing, and managing physical and virtual cards… Stripe Issuing is certified directly with all major card networks as an issuing processor, which ensures reliability and rapid feature releases. It includes support for Apple Pay and Google Pay, allows programmatic dispute handling, and provides real-time authorization hooks.”
Google to boost Google Pay adoption with transfer option for cards saved in Chrome
Google Chrome’s Autofill feature, which stores users’ payment card details in the browser and posts them into payment forms on websites, will soon offer to transfer details of stored cards to Google Pay... More
Google Pay rolls out support for P2P payments, concert tickets and boarding passes
Do more with Google Pay — Google — “Today, we’re starting to roll out updates that will let you do even more with Google Pay. Here’s a look at what’s new: Pay friends with the Google Pay app; Save concert tickets and boarding passes; Manage your info in one convenient place.”
Apple Pay signs up 200K in Poland in first two weeks?
Just two weeks after Apple’s NFC payment system was introduced in Poland, one commentator has set out data that points to the system having already signed up some 200,000 users... More
300 German savings banks to roll out their own NFC mobile payments app at the end of July
Mobile payment: Sparkassen app to be available at the end of July — Heise Online (translation) — “A beta version is currently available in the Android Play Store. However, this only works with the accounts of selected savings banks whose employees and customers are putting the system through its paces. At the launch date at the end of July, around 300 savings banks will be there, a spokesman for the savings bank subsidiary S-Payment told Heise Online… Because the savings banks are following their own plans for mobile payment, their customers can not use their credit cards with Google Pay.”
Juniper predicts gains in market share for OEM Pays
Apple Pay accounts for 1 in 2 OEM Pay users globally, reaching 200 million by 2020 — Juniper Research — “The global number of mobile contactless users will exceed 760 million by 2020, up from an estimated 440 million in 2018… The combined market share of Apple, Samsung and Google will reach 60% of global mobile contactless users by 2023, up from an estimated 50% in 2018. Other OEM Pay users, including the likes of Huawei Pay, Xiaomi Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay, will exceed 20 million by 2020.”