Barclays has unveiled an Apple Watch app which will let customers check their current account balance when the watch goes on sale in the UK on April 24... More
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New Zealand NFC wallet venture Semble goes live
Close to one million New Zealanders now have the ability to make NFC payments with the nationwide launch of Semble, a SIM-based mobile wallet introduced by two New Zealand banks, three carriers and payments network Paymark... More
AMP Bank adds HCE payments to mobile app
Australia’s AMP Bank has added HCE-based NFC mobile payments to its banking app for Android, allowing AMP Visa debit card holders to make payments with their phone at any contactless terminal... More
Vodafone combines tokens and SIMs for NFC payments in Europe
Vodafone customers in five major European markets will be able to use their Visa cards to make NFC mobile payments from the second quarter of this year with a new SIM-based service that makes use of tokenization technology. More
One in five US mobile phone users made a mobile payment in 2014
22% of US mobile phone users made a mobile payment last year, up from 17% in 2013, research from the Federal Reserve Board reveals... More
NFC wristbands to help swimmers track performance
Swimmers will soon be able to use NFC wristbands to set up personal training regimes and measure their performance in the pool... More
ANZ to add HCE payments to mobile banking app
ANZ Bank New Zealand is to add NFC mobile payments to its popular goMoney mobile banking app later this year... More
Bulgari unveils luxury NFC smartwatch
Italian jewellery brand Bulgari will enter the luxury smartwatch market next year when it launches the NFC-enabled Diagono Magnesium watch – allowing users to make contactless payments, access personal data, as well as unlocking doors at home, at work, or on their own car or yacht... More
PayPal explains why it’s buying mobile wallet provider Paydiant
“What Paydiant has is a clarity of focus on mobile and how large merchants need to utilise mobile to connect with their customers — they’re a small company doing that very successfully with some really cool brands,” Anuj Nayar, senior director of global initiatives at PayPal, has told NFC World as the payment giant prepares to complete its acquisition of the payments platform provider for a reported US$280m... More
Facebook rolls out payments with Messenger app
Facebook users in the US will soon be able to make and receive secure mobile payments for free via the social network’s Messenger app... More
Finnish banks add HCE payments to Pivo mobile wallet
Finland’s largest financial services group is to add support for HCE payments to the mobile wallet app it introduced two years ago... More
Four in ten US iPhone 6 owners have now used Apple Pay
Apple Pay has been tried at least once by 42% of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners in the US, a survey by Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) has found — and almost half the owners who haven’t yet tried the NFC mobile payments service (47%) say they intend to do so within the next six months... More
Carrefour extends grocery shopping to smartwatches
Customers at a Carrefour hypermarket in Paris are now able to use their smartwatch to access their digital shopping list, tick off items as they go and receive loyalty points when they check out... More
Commbank turns on HCE
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is now offering customers with an NFC mobile phone running Android 4.4 KitKat or higher the ability to make mobile payments using host card emulation... More
SXSW to deploy 1,000 beacons
The organizers of the annual SXSW music and film festival are working with Gimbal, RightRound and Urban Airship to place 1,000 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons around the event’s venues... More
Softcard to close down on 31 March
The Softcard mobile wallet service is to close down altogether at the end of March 2015 in the wake of a deal between Google and the three US carriers that founded the NFC payments venture... More
Visa prepares to launch HCE services with multiple banks
Visa is to launch NFC payments services based on host card emulation with “several leading financial institutions around the world” in the coming months, with BBVA and Cuscal already live... More
CaixaBank lets drivers speak to mobile banking app
Spain’s CaixaBank has launched an app which allows customers to use voice commands to perform simple online banking operations, opening the way for drivers to check balances and initiate transfers as they travel... More
Optus shows off wearable payments
Australian mobile network Optus has shown off a prototype watch that can be used to make contactless payments as an extension of its Cash by Optus prepaid NFC payment app... More
Qkr! payments at Wagamama
Diners at UK restaurant chain Wagamama can now pay for their meals at their tables using MasterCard’s Qkr... More