Passengers travelling on metro and tram services in the Spanish city of Valencia will be able to pay for their fares with a contactless bank card or validate mobile or paper tickets with a QR code using an upgraded ticketing and fare payment system to be implemented across the Metrovalencia network... More
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has launched a standard for the generation of QR codes in the country’s retail payments sector as the first phase of a nationwide rollout of a universal QR code payments system... More
Apple Pay has launched in El Salvador and Guatemala with support for Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by BAC Credomatic and Promerica banks in both countries as well as by Banco G&T and Banco Industrial in Guatemala... More
Nearly 40% of consumers in the US say they prefer to pay for their orders at bars and restaurants using mobile payments apps such as Apple Pay or Google Pay rather than a physical credit or debit card, according to a survey... More
The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) is to begin piloting the use of its proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of transactions including in-store and offline NFC payments... More
Students at the University of Florida in the US will soon be able to gain access to campus buildings, events and library services as well as authorise contactless payments for food, beverages and books using a digital student identity card stored on their Apple or Android NFC smartphone or smartwatch... More
The digital euro should be distributed via apps, digital and physical cards and other form factors that enable consumers to make both NFC and QR code in-store payments with the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a European Central Bank (ECB) report... More
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is to begin piloting a digital wallet that will enable users to make instant person-to-person (P2P) payments in Germany and France as a first step towards rolling out a unified payment system that will support “a comprehensive range of transaction types” across Europe... More
Buyers of Swatch watches in Thailand can now opt to make contactless payments with their NFC wearable device using the Swiss-based company’s SwatchPay! contactless payments service. More
Armenia’s Ardshinbank has launched a software-only point of sale (softPOS) solution that enables merchants to accept contactless payments on Android NFC smartphones, tablets and other devices. ... More
The number of registered mobile money accounts globally rose by 13% from 1.4bn in 2021 to 1.6bn in 2022 and total mobile money transaction values grew by 22% from US$1tn to US$1.26tn over the same period, according to research by the GSMA... More
The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) in the USA is to implement a “next generation” account-based ticketing system that will support both open and closed loop contactless fare payments, mobile ticketing, flexible fare structures and fare capping across its public transportation networks... More
Apple users in Japan will soon be able to store and top up a digital version of rail operator JR West’s ICOCA prepaid contactless transit card in Apple Wallet and use it to pay their fares for bus and rail journeys with a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch... More
Freight brokers in the US can now transfer advance payments for fuel to carriers and their drivers using a mobile wallet app that allows drivers to make contactless fuel payments from their smartphone... More
A request for proposals from “experienced vendors” has been issued by Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the USA, to develop, implement and maintain a multimodal mobile and contactless fare payments system that will use an open architecture to make it possible to quickly and easily add support for new payments technologies... More
The number of new Hyundai Card users in South Korea rose by 75% from 116,000 in February to 203,000 in March following the launch of Apple Pay in the country on 21 March... More
Merchants in Taiwan have become the first outside the USA to be able to accept in-store contactless payments on iPhones using Apple’s Tap to Pay software point of sale (sPOS) feature... More
Students attending Purdue University in West Lafayette in the US state of Indiana can now access campus buildings and authorise on-campus payments using a digital student identity card stored on their Apple or Android NFC smartphone or smartwatch rather than a physical ID card... More
Residents of India will soon be able to make mobile payments for goods and services when visiting Nepal from their smartphone’s digital wallet using an interoperable cross-border payments system to be implemented between the two countries... More
Lithuanian supermarket chain IKI has opened its second contactless convenience store in the capital Vilnius, enabling customers to check in at the store door by tapping their payment card, mobile wallet or retailer’s app, select the products they want and pay for their purchases without needing to scan them, by tapping their payment card as they leave... More