Android Pay, the mobile payments service being developed by China UnionPay, will use both NFC and fingerprint verification, Want China Times reports... More
Biometrics
High value contactless payments arrive in the UK
A new service that lets NFC phone users enter their PIN on their mobile device to confirm a high value transaction is making it possible for UK consumers to make contactless payments valued at more than the current £20 (US$32) transaction limit for the first time... More
Latvian merchants and ski resorts adopt NFC loyalty platform
Latvian startup Walmoo has launched a mobile loyalty platform that uses standard NFC phones or tablets to provide customers with the ability to redeem coupons, discounts and offers... More
Venmo adds TouchID
Users of the Venmo mobile payment app can now sign in with Apple’s TouchID feature on the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6 Plus... More
Finnish cafes to test face recognition
A number of cafes in Helsinki, Finland, are to begin testing a payments service developed by Uniqul that uses the geometric proportions of a customer’s face to verify their identity, Yle reports... More
MasterCard and Visa to create new security standard to replace passwords for online payments
MasterCard is working with Visa to create a new authentication standard for online payments that will gradually replace the 3D Secure protocol with “invisible authentication”, far fewer prompts for passwords and support for a range of biometric technologies... More
Zwipe reports biometric card pilot results
Four in ten (42%) of the 200 cardholders who took part in a trial of Zwipe’s biometric payment card conducted by Norway’s Sparebanken say they think the fingerprint security solution is more secure than using a PIN code to verify a transaction... More
Costa Rican bank adds face biometrics to mobile app
Costa Rican bank Grupo Mutual has worked with biometric technology provider FacePhi to build face recognition into its mobile banking app... More
604m will have biometric wearables by 2019
There will be 604m users of wearable biometric technology globally by 2019, a new report from Goode Intelligence forecasts... More
Judge rules on fingerprint-locked smartphones
A Virginia Circuit Court judge has ruled that police officers cannot force criminal suspects to divulge mobile phone passwords but they can force them to unlock their phone with a fingerprint scanner, WSJ reports... More
Canadian banks pilot biometric wristband payments
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), MasterCard and other Canadian issuing banks have begun pilot testing an NFC version of Nymi, a biometrically authenticated wristband that uses the wearer’s unique cardiac rhythm to verify their identity. More
Alipay demos biometrics for in-store payments
Chinese online payments giant Alipay demonstrated Alipay Touch, a fingerprint biometric system for its mobile wallet app, at a conference in Beijing earlier this month... More
Acer Pay is on the way
Taiwanese computer maker Acer is to join Apple and Samsung in introducing a payment service for users of its mobile phones and wearable devices, Want China Times reports... More
Bionym begins shipping wristband
Canadian startup Bionym has begun shipping its Nymi wristband to partners and key developers after starting to take pre-orders in September last year... More
MasterCard backs Zwipe fingerprint payment card
MasterCard has partnered with Zwipe, maker of a contactless payment card that includes an integrated fingerprint biometric sensor, for the commercial launch of the technology following a pilot with Norway’s Sparebanken DIN. More
New Zealand banks and carriers to begin Semble NFC wallet rollout in November
TSM NZ, the NFC payments joint venture between New Zealand’s carriers and the Paymark payments network, has announced a new brand name, a November date for its first trials — and a marketing partnership with Samsung... More
Dartmouth researchers develop continuous authentication service based on smart wristbands
Researchers at Dartmouth College’s Trustworthy Health and Wellness (THaW) group have developed a service that uses a bracelet containing an accelerometer, gyroscope and radio to continuously authenticate the user of a computer system... More
Alipay adds fingerprint security
Chinese online payments giant Alipay has adopted Nok Nok Labs’ S3 Authentication Suite, enabling customers with a Samsung Galaxy S5 to use the fingerprint sensor (FPS) on their device to authenticate payments... More
Samsung and PayPal to offer smartwatch payments
Samsung is working on a smartwatch that will include biometric verification and support for PayPal payments and location-based offers, reports Business Korea... More
Apple joins NFC secure element standards body
Apple has joined GlobalPlatform, the organisation responsible for defining standards for the secure elements used to store sensitive data in NFC phones... More