The total value of contactless payments made in the UK jumped by 49.7% in 2022, Barclays reports, “as Brits embraced the £100 transaction limit and returned to high street shopping following the easing of all coronavirus restrictions”... More
The central bank of Laos has begun testing a proof of concept central bank digital currency (CBDC) known as the DLak or digital Lao kip as part of its research into the potential issuance of a CBDC in the country... More
Apple Pay will go live in South Korea with support from Hyundai Card in the next few months, according to local media reports that cite statements from the two companies... More
Customers at Foodcellar Market grocery stores in New York City in the US can now scan the items they wish to purchase with their smartphone and then pay for them from their mobile device before leaving the store... More
The Bank of England and UK Treasury have launched a consultation on the design of the proposed digital pound and could roll out the central bank digital currency (CBDC) during the second half of the decade, according to bank and government officials... More
Consumers in Nepal can now make contactless NFC payments by tapping their smartphone on an NFC reader at the point of sale (POS) without needing an internet connection... More
India’s ICICI, IDFC First and Kotak Mahindra banks have begun enabling selected merchants to accept contactless in-store payments made using the retail version of the prototype digital rupee as part of the first phase of the Reserve Bank of India’s retail central bank digital currency pilot... More
More than 50% of all payments made with physical or digital payment cards issued to customers of South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) are now contactless, the bank reports... More
The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) has increased the limit for individual contactless transactions made without a PIN from 55 Jordanian dinars (US$77) to 100 Jordanian dinars (US$141) and doubled the country’s daily contactless limit from 150 Jordanian dinars (US$212) to 300 Jordanian dinars (US$423)... More
Russel Luis E Fernandes, head of product for card present payments at European omnichannel payments leader Trust Payments, will share the lessons learned from developing a software-only POS solution for large and small merchants across Europe at NFCW’s next Contactless World Congress event on 21 February... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering plans to develop a digital euro app that would enable consumers to use the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make contactless and QR code-based payments and “facilitate a standard approach to connecting end users to intermediaries” including banks and other payments processors... More
College students with a physical prepaid U-Pass SmarTrip transit card can now generate, store and use a digital version of it in Apple Wallet... More
Apple users with accounts at two Russian banks will soon be able to attach an NFC payment sticker to the back of their iPhone that enables them to make contactless payments for goods and services with their smartphone... More
Customers of Qatar National Bank (QNB) can now authenticate contactless payments for purchases at merchants in Qatar using their face and without needing to use a physical payment card or smartphone... More
The Central Bank of Bangladesh is trialling an interoperable payments system that will enable customers of more than 15 major banks and payment service providers to pay for their purchases by scanning a standardized QR code at a participating merchant’s point of sale with their smartphone... More
Samsung Wallet will soon go live in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, enabling users to store and use digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Penn State University in the US has launched a digital student identity card that students can store on their Apple or Android NFC smartphone or smartwatch and use to access campus buildings and to make contactless on-campus purchases... More
Passengers travelling on buses, electric buses and trolley buses in Prague in the Czech Republic can now use their physical or digital debit or credit card to purchase tickets for their journeys from onboard contactless self-service terminals rather than in advance or from the driver... More
Transit agencies in the US would benefit from introducing open loop contactless fare payment systems but widespread adoption “has remained elusive” owing to challenges that both the US public transportation and payments sectors need to address, according to a report by the Washington DC-based Brookings Institution research group... More
Passengers travelling on the Moscow Metro and Moscow Central Circle services in the Russian capital paid for a total of around 32m journeys using the network’s FacePay biometric contactless fare payment system and more than 220,000 new users registered to use FacePay during 2022, Moscow Metro reports... More
