Safaricom and Visa join forces in seeking to expand access to digital payments for M-Pesa consumers and merchants — Safaricom — “The partnership will cover over 24 million M-Pesa customers, more than 173,000 Lipa Na M-Pesa merchants from Safaricom and more than 61m merchant locations throughout Visa’s global network, and over 3.4bn Visa cards in more than 200 countries and territories, subject to regulatory approval.”
Cashless
JCB rolls out contactless payments acceptance on standard Android devices
JCB has launched Tap on Mobile, a contactless payments acceptance solution that uses off-the-shelf Android NFC devices to enable its acquirers to offer “a cost-effective payment solution to their merchants”... More
LG pilots face-based digital currency payments in unmanned convenience store
LG CNS is piloting a new payments solution that combines face recognition, a blockchain-based digital currency and AI technology to let shoppers enter an unmanned store, shop and check out — without needing to come into close contact with either employees or POS equipment... More
Starling Bank adds connected cards for volunteer shoppers
Customers of Starling Bank are now able to request an additional, specially restricted payment card that can be given to a friend, family member or volunteer shopper “to buy essential items on their behalf”... More
UK supermarkets launch digital volunteer shopping cards
UK supermarket chains Asda and M&S Food are making it possible for customers who are self-isolating to prepay online for purchases that volunteer shoppers can then make in-store on their behalf... More
Canada increases contactless transaction limit by 150%
Visa and Mastercard are increasing the contactless payment limit in Canada by 150%, from C$100 (US$70) to C$250 (US$176)... More
Australia doubles contactless transaction limit to A$200
The Australian payments industry has begun implementing an increase in the country’s contactless payments transaction limit, from A$100 (US$60) to A$200 (US$120)... More
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
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.”