The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched its digital euro project with a two-year investigation into key issues regarding the design, distribution and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Cashless
Google lets US Android users make in-store NFC payments from their Google Pay balance
Google Pay users with an NFC-enabled Android smartphone in the US can now request a virtual debit card that allows them to make in-store contactless payments directly from their Google Pay balance... More
Survey: Four in five consumers globally would use a biometric payment card
More than four fifths of consumers (81%) worldwide are ready to use a biometric payment card and authenticate payments with their fingerprint rather than a PIN code, according to a survey commissioned by a biometric technology provider... More
MTA sees open loop fare payments double as Omny system tops 100m taps
Passengers on New York’s subway and bus services have now tapped their contactless bank card, smartphone or wearable device to pay fares using the Omny open loop fare payment system more than 100m times since its launch in May 2019, double the total of 50m the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reported in March this year... More
New Zealand to launch national open loop contactless fare payments in 2022
Public transport users in the New Zealand city of Canterbury will be the first to be able to make contactless fare payments with a new national public transport smartcard or their own credit or debit card using an account-based open loop payments system being introduced by the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency... More
Bahrain bank unveils kids’ NFC payments band that lets parents monitor transactions
Customers of Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) can now open a prepaid card account that enables their children to make contactless in-store payments with an NFC-enabled wristband and allows parents to digitally issue allowances and monitor transactions... More
Forecast: Contactless to account for more than half the total value of all POS transactions by 2026
Contactless payments will account for more than half (57%) of the total global value of transactions made at the point of sale (POS) by 2026, compared with just under 25% in 2021, Juniper Research predicts... More
Translink to roll out interoperable fare-capped contactless ticketing across Northern Ireland
Public transport users in Northern Ireland will soon be able to make tap-on-tap-off contactless fare payments on all bus and rail services across the whole province using their debit or credit card or a single transit smartcard... More
SEPTA reveals plans to expand mobile payments for transit ticketing in Philadelphia
South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the US is planning to upgrade or replace its SEPTA Key transit card system in order to offer passengers on its bus, trolley and rail networks in the Greater Philadelphia region a wider range of transit ticketing options... More
UK to raise contactless transaction limit to £100 on 5 August?
The planned increase in the UK’s contactless transaction limit from £45 to £100 announced by the UK Treasury in March could come into effect on 5 August, according to a Reddit user... More
Vipps, MobilePay and Pivo to merge and launch single digital wallet across Scandinavia
Bank-owned Nordic mobile payment providers Vipps in Norway, MobilePay in Denmark and Pivo in Finland are to merge and will create a single digital wallet that consumers can use in all three countries, as well as for cross-border payments... More
Digital payments now exceed cash for purchases at US vending machines
The average number of digital payments made for purchases from vending machines in the US grew steadily during 2019, finally exceeded those made with cash in April 2020 and continued to increase over the course of 2020, a new study shows... More
Russian fast food chain rolls out biometric payments so customers can ‘pay with a glance’
Customers at Kio Kukhnya fast food outlets in the Russian city of St Petersburg can now pay for their food and beverages at payment terminals equipped with biometric pay-with-a-glance technology... More
Polish cinema lets moviegoers pay for tickets using their eyes
Moviegoers at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema in the Polish city of Wroclaw can now pay for their tickets with their eyes via a biometric payments system that makes use of iris recognition technology... More
Hong Kong virtual bank launches ‘all-in-one’ numberless debit and credit card
Customers of Hong Kong-based virtual bank Mox can now apply for an “all-in-one” numberless payments card that they can choose to use as either a debit or a credit card whenever they make a transaction... More
Survey: more than six in ten US consumers say they would pay for a biometric card
Some 65.5% of US consumers would pay for a biometric credit card that has a built-in fingerprint reader for authenticating payments, according to a survey of American credit card users... More
Stockholm to add EMV white label card for closed loop transit ticketing
Passengers travelling on metro, rail, bus, tram and boat services in the Swedish capital of Stockholm will soon be able to use an EMV white label card issued by the city’s Storstockholm Lokaltrafik (SL) transit authority to make EMV contactless payments for their fares... More
Thai and Malaysian central banks roll out real-time cross-border QR payments
Consumers from Thailand can now make instant cross-border QR code-based payments for goods and services to merchants in Malaysia from their mobile payments app using a service being launched by the Bank of Thailand and Bank Negara Malaysia... More
Beijing banks add support for digital yuan at 3,000 ATMs
Customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Agricultural Bank of China can now exchange cash for digital yuan and vice versa at more than 3,000 ATMs across Beijing, China, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency... More
Resorts World brings mobile payments to Las Vegas gaming tables
Gamblers at Resorts World Las Vegas in Nevada in the US will soon be able to purchase gambling chips for table games including blackjack, baccarat and roulette, as well as place contactless cashless bets at slot machines, directly from a digital wallet on their mobile phone... More