Residents of South Korea will soon be able to store a digital ID in an app on their mobile phone and use it to verify their identity across a wide range of use cases including accessing government services, healthcare, finance and transport... More
Apple may soon enable merchants to accept contactless payments on their iPhone without needing to connect their device to a separate payment terminal or other additional hardware, according to reports... More
Google is seeking to focus on developing Google Pay into a multipurpose digital wallet by extending the range of cards, passes and tickets that the service supports and is working with cryptocurrency providers to introduce digital cards that will enable users to store crypto assets but still make payments in conventional currencies... More
Hyundai is to let Apple iPhone users lock, unlock and start their vehicles remotely using a digital key stored in their Wallet app... More
More than 488,000 consumers in Nigeria have downloaded an eNaira digital wallet and conducted transactions worth a total of 62m naira (US$151,000) in the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) since its launch in October, according to a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesman... More
The European Commission’s investigation into Apple Pay is “moving ahead on top of an investigation into how the iPhone maker requires software developers to use its in-app purchasing system”, the EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has told Bloomberg News... More
Residents of Los Angeles County in the USA will be able to verify that they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and receive a reminder to have a second dose of the vaccine via a digital record they can store in their Apple Wallet or “competing Google platform”... More
Owners of Huawei’s Mate 40 in China will be able to make transactions in digital yuan from a central bank digital currency (CBDC) hardware wallet built into the soon-to-be-released smartphone... More
The European Union is to publish a report next week that will provide further information on the results of its investigation into Apple Pay and could lead to new legislation forcing Apple to provide more open access to the NFC chip in its devices, according to “documents obtained by Bloomberg”... More
The Central Bank of The Bahamas is to launch its Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) across the entire archipelago in October, after piloting the new e-currency on the islands of Exuma and Abaco... More
Visa is planning the biggest changes to swipe fees in a decade — Bloomberg — “The company’s interchange rates — fees charged every time a consumer uses a card — will go up or down depending on the merchant and the way a consumer pays for their purchases, according to a document Visa sent to banks that outlines the changes. Higher rates are looming for transactions on e-commerce sites, while retailers in certain services categories, such as real estate and education, will see fees decline.”
Ant Financial to raise a $1bn startup investment fund — Bloomberg — “Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is planning to raise about US$1bn for a fund that will invest in startups from Southeast Asia to India and help strengthen its foothold in fast-growing mobile internet markets, a person familiar with the matter said. The internet finance company is looking to back more startups in those regions that focus on payments and online finance.”
“UPI has had the fastest acceptance rate not just among payment platforms but digital platforms of any kind,” Dilip Asbe, chief executive officer of the National Payments Corporation of India, has told Bloomberg... More
A new digital identity service to be introduced by the French government this year will use NFC passport reading to enable citizens to use their smartphone to securely enrol themselves onto the system... More
Apple and Goldman Sachs credit card targeting August launch date — Bloomberg — “The Apple Card is targeted to launch as early as the first half of August… People who own an iPhone will be able to sign up for the card via the Wallet app, which will have built-in Apple Card support as part of the latest iOS 12.4 update.”
Apple expands Goldman credit card test to thousands of retail workers — Bloomberg — “The Cupertino, California-based company this week launched an internal beta program for the Apple Card with its retail workers, according to people familiar with the initiative. The move marks the first major trial for the card, which has been used for several weeks by a far smaller set of Apple corporate and Goldman Sachs employees.”
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.”
Safaricom, Alibaba unit agree mobile payments partnership — Bloomberg — “The deal extends Safaricom customers’ ability to use its mobile money service, known as M-Pesa, outside Kenya as the company looks to establish the system as a global platform.”
Barclays has announced plans to roll its bPay prepaid wearable payments offering into its Pingit mobile payments app, “giving 3.6m users access to simple ways to pay on the go”... More
Japan’s PayPay to update app after wrongful charge complaints — Bloomberg — “An unspecified number of customers called in and e-mailed to report charges on their bills that they didn’t recognize, according to PayPay spokesman Fumihiro Ito. Several consumers say they hadn’t even installed the app but their credit cards were billed for purchases they didn’t make… PayPay triggered a shopping frenzy earlier this month by promising to give users 10bn yen (US$88m) in rebates from their purchases.”
