McDonald’s South Africa is piloting a mobile payment service at select restaurants in Johannesburg and Cape Town using social messaging app WeChat Africa, enabling customers to complete purchases by presenting QR codes generated by the app at the point of sale... More
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Liquid Pay targets 25,000 retailers in Singapore with QR code mobile payments
Some 25,000 retail locations in Singapore are expected to accept a new mobile payment service within the next 12 months... More
Carta to host payments and fintech leaders at Mobey Day Toronto
PARTNER NEWS: Carta Worldwide is preparing to welcome leaders from across the payments and financial technology industry to the first Mobey Day in North America, to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto from 7-8 December... More
Starbucks takes mobile payments to 260 stores in Indonesia
Customers at coffee chain Starbucks in Indonesia can now make mobile payments at 260 stores nationwide by scanning a barcode at the point of sale using the company’s mobile app and completing the payment using a registered Starbucks Card... More
Mobile bank offers hand recognition authentication
Dutch mobile-only bank bunq is to offer customers using its app 4 Fingers TouchlessID hand recognition software, developed by US biometrics authentication solutions provider Veridium... More
Visa warns of ‘serious disruption’ to online payments from EBA proposal
Visa is warning a proposal from the European Banking Authority (EBA) requiring every online transaction over €10 (US$10.61) to have additional authentication steps at checkout will “seriously disrupt online shopping and cause inconvenience for consumers”... More
Chase Pay goes live at Starbucks and Best Buy
Chase Pay has launched across 7,500 Starbucks and nearly 1,400 Best Buy locations across the US, allowing shoppers to make payments by scanning a QR code at the point of sale... More
Barclays pilots cash withdrawals using NFC mobile phones and contactless cards
UK bank Barclays has begun piloting a contactless mobile cash service that will enable customers to withdraw cash with a tap of their NFC mobile phones or contactless debit card... More
Byblos Bank launches HCE mobile payments
Customers of Lebanon-based Byblos Bank can now make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments using ByblosPay, a new service developed by the bank with Visa, CSC Bank and mobile app developer Foo... More
Optus adds smart coffee cup to contactless payments range
Australian mobile network operator Optus has updated its range of contactless payment accessories to include a SmartCup — a coffee cup that includes the new Optus Pay PayTag in its base allowing consumers to make contactless payments up to US$100 at any payment terminal that accepts Visa PayWave... More
Abu Dhabi schools in talks to pilot BLE school bus project
UAE-based startup Smart Navigation Systems (SNS) is in talks with “several schools” in Abu Dhabi to begin piloting School Bus Application, a service that notifies parents of the safety of their children when travelling to school using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons on buses... More
Mumbai Metro to get Paytm mobile ticketing
Commuters on the Mumbai Metro service will soon be able to pay for journeys using mobile payments platform Paytm... More
Android Pay launches in Poland
Android Pay has begun rolling out across Poland, allowing consumers with compatible devices to make payments at more than 400,000 retail locations in the country that accept contactless payments... More
Facebook update brings tokenization to Messenger payments
Facebook has introduced a payments update to its Messenger platform that will allow US businesses who are not integrated with Stripe or PayPal to process payments within both messages and webview using tokenization technology... More
Apple Pay rolls out support for charity donations
Apple Pay users can now make charitable donations to nonprofit organisations by clicking on a Donate with Apple Pay button found at the checkout of supporting mobile apps and websites... More
Samsung Pay to launch Samsung Rewards programme in the US
Samsung Pay is to launch a rewards programme in the US this week that will let users earn points for each purchase, which can be redeemed for items such as gift cards at participating stores, prepaid Samsung Rewards Visa gift cards, Samsung products “and more”, the company says... More
Apple’s NFC restriction hits mobile payments innovation, Australian banks claim
The group of Australian banks taking on Apple over access to the NFC technology within iPhone handsets says the restriction is not only preventing the introduction of mobile wallet services across multiple platforms but also proving detrimental to continued investment into mobile payment apps... More
Visa and BioConnect work to enable multiple biometrics on mobile apps
Visa is working with biometric identity platform provider BioConnect to enable multiple methods of biometric authentication through a single mobile app... More
French store uses augmented reality for Christmas shoppers
French department store Galeries Lafayette is using augmented reality to offer Christmas shoppers a virtual Arctic experience telling the story of climate change... More
Banks ‘must consider human weakness’ to improve mobile banking security, report says
Banks must consider the weakness of their own consumers’ behaviours and avoid being distracted by technical vulnerabilities when it comes to improving the security of mobile banking and payments systems, a report by Mobey Forum says... More