Qatar triples contactless transaction limit
Banks in Qatar are raising the contactless transaction limit from 100 riyals (US$27.46) to 300 riyals (US$82.39), in a bid to limit the spread of Covid-19... More
Cashless
Mastercard: 29 countries have now agreed to raise their contactless payment limit
Mastercard is now working with 29 countries across Europe and central Asia to implement increases to their contactless payment transaction limit, the payments network says... More
Egypt promotes cashless payments with increased contactless transaction limit, free prepaid cards and mobile wallets
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has introduced a series of measures designed to reduce the need for citizens to use cash to make payments, including a doubling of the contactless payment transaction limit and free access to both prepaid card and mobile wallet services... More
LibertyBus stops accepting cash payments for tickets
LibertyBus, the public bus service operator for the island of Jersey, has stopped accepting cash payments for tickets.... More
Metlink bans cash payments for transit tickets
Metlink, the transportation agency for the Greater Wellington region of New Zealand, has ceased accepting cash payments on all buses, trains, ferries and stations “to stay one step ahead of Covid-19 and give our passengers and staff more peace of mind”... More
National Bank of Georgia recommends contactless and mobile payments
“Whenever possible, use cashless payments, contactless and mobile payments,” Georgia’s central bank has urged the country’s citizens... More
Merchants in four European countries to pilot dongle-free contactless payments on Android NFC phones
Merchants in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania are to participate in the pilot of a new mobile POS (mPOS) service that enables contactless payments to be accepted on Android mobile devices “without the need for any additional hardware”... More
Tesco opens cashless convenience store
UK-based supermarket giant Tesco is testing a cashless-only payments service at its High Holborn store in central London... More
Munich Airport uses NFC shelf-edge labels to let passengers self-checkout from retail store
A solution that uses NFC shelf-edge labels to let passengers self-checkout and pay for their shopping using their mobile phone is undergoing pilot testing at Munich Airport... More
One in fourteen UK consumers no longer carry a physical wallet
One in 14 people ‘no longer carry a wallet’ — Yahoo Finance — “One in 14 people say they no longer carry a wallet, a survey has found. Some 7% no longer take a wallet out and about with them, while a fifth (20%) said that if they were to look in their wallet it would not contain any cash.”
New York City bans cashless stores
New York City has joined New Jersey, Philadelphia and San Francisco in passing legislation that makes it illegal for stores, restaurants and other retail outlets to not accept cash... More
Ghana to launch national QR mobile payments service in December
Govt to launch universal QR code to make Ghana cashless society — GhanaWeb — “The government will in December 2019 launch a Universal QR code in a bid to make Ghana a cashless society, vice president Dr Mahammudu Bawumia has announced. He says with the code which leverages existing technologies, traders and businesses will be able to receive payments without a point of sale device.”
First Group reports on contactless and mobile ticketing adoption on UK bus services
Bus passengers turning to contactless in record numbers, says First Group — Yahoo! Finance — “More bus passengers paid with contactless and mobile apps rather than cash on First Group’s local bus routes for the first time in its history, the company has revealed. According to bosses, 43% of payments were made by cash, with 45% made through non-cash methods, in the latest push towards a cashless society. The remainder came from ticket sales via third parties.”
EU banks plot pan-European rival to Visa and Mastercard
A group of 20 European banks are working together on “setting up a pan-European payment system to challenge the dominance of Visa, Mastercard and technology companies such as Google and PayPal,” French news agency AFP reports... More
DressCode ships contactless payments shirts
UK-based DressCode has begun offering a range of tailored men’s shirts that include a contactless payments module incorporated into the sleeve cuff... More
Japanese merchants report sharp increase in mobile transactions
The introduction of the Japanese government’s Cashless Japan initiative, which provides consumers with cashback incentives when they use a card or mobile phone to make a purchase, has led to a significant upswing in mobile payments adoption, according to reports from a number of merchants and mobile payments providers... More
Japanese government offers discounts to consumers making cashless payments with cards and mobile phones
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has launched a major initiative designed to persuade consumers to move away from paying in cash, by providing a rebate whenever they use a card or mobile phone to make a purchase at any of 500,000 merchants across the country... More
Sainsbury’s halts cashierless supermarket pilot
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has added a manned till and two self-checkout stations to the London store it opened in April as the UK’s first checkout-free supermarket... More
Lojas Americanas opens checkout-free automated convenience stores in Brazil
Lojas Americanas, Brazil’s largest retailer, has opened the first of a series of Ame Go convenience stores that use a combination of smart shelf sensors, overhead cameras and QR-enabled entry and exit barriers to remove the need to install physical checkout stations... More
7-Eleven brings mobile self-checkout to New York stores
Shoppers at 7-Eleven stores in New York can now use their mobile phones to self-checkout and pay for their purchases, the convenience store giant has announced. “Mobile Checkout takes convenience to the next level, letting customers in New York City skip the checkout.” More
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