Payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay will be used by US consumers to make transactions valued at a total of US$78.6bn this year, representing 1.6% of all US brick-and-mortar retail sales, according to a new forecast from 451 Research... More
One million CaixaBank customers are now using their mobile phone to make in-store payments, up 87% on this time last year, and 100,000 customers are making payments using wearable devices, the Spanish bank has reported... More
Samsung Pay Touch app turns your Galaxy smartphone into a PoS terminal — SamMobile — “Samsung has quietly launched the Samsung Pay Touch app to target small businesses in Canada. The app transforms compatible Galaxy smartphones into POS (point of sale) terminals that can accept contactless payments from customers… The biggest advantage of Samsung Pay Touch is that it doesn’t require any additional hardware to set up. As long as you have a compatible Galaxy smartphone, you can download the app and complete the registration to start using it right away.”
Debit payments continue to grow and go digital — Pulse — “The percentage of debit card issuers that say they are interested in offering contactless cards nearly doubled year over year, with 70% planning to issue contactless cards by the end of 2020. Another 10% already issue some contactless debit cards. Only 20% of respondents say they have no plans to offer contactless cards.”
Your smartphone will soon double as an Eftpos terminal as Quest partners with NAB and Visa — Quest — “Quest Payment Systems (Quest), in conjunction with NAB and Visa, has launched a trial which allows merchants to accept card payments using their Android smartphone. Customers simply tap the merchant’s phone with a contactless card or mobile wallet. No additional payment terminal hardware or dongle is required, allowing small businesses to start accepting payments quickly using their existing mobile device.”
Savings for commuters using contactless payments — Commonwealth Bank of Australia — “Commuters using contactless payments will now also receive Opal travel benefits, including: Daily, weekly and Sunday travel caps in line with Opal caps; Weekly travel reward (half price after eight trips); The Opal transfer discount; Off-peak pricing for train travel… The trial is also extending to the Sydney bus network in a staged roll-out over the coming months.”
Would you microchip yourself to speed up paying with contactless? — This is Money — “11% of Londoners surveyed by PaymentSense and YouGov said they’d consider microchipping themselves to make it quicker for them to make contactless payments… A quarter say they’d be happy to use a fingerprint scanner to verify payments. 16% would be in favour of using a retinal scanner to do so.”
Hack breaks your Visa card’s contactless limit for big frauds — Forbes — “To carry out their hack, the researchers used a specialised piece of hardware to intercept and insert messages in the communications between the card and the reader. For instance, they could tell the card that verification — like a PIN — wasn’t needed, even though the requested amount was more than £30. They then told the terminal that verification has already been made by another means.”
Israel Railways starts plan to pay for rides using credit cards — The Jerusalem Post — “Israel Railways has launched a two-month contactless payment pilot programme, aiming to soon enable all rail users to ‘tap and go’ with their credit card rather than purchase a ticket or use a preloaded Rav-Kav smartcard… Pilot participants will initially be charged daily based on purchasing full price one-way tickets, although Israel Railways intends to introduce season tickets and discounts for senior citizens, students and other groups in the near future.”
Visa sets sights on a ‘Cashless Japan’ with one year to go to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 — Visa — “At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Visa offered a payment-enabled ring to its Team Visa athletes. At the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, Visa commercially sold wearable products, such as gloves and lapel pins, enabled to make payments over contactless payment readers. For Tokyo 2020, Visa is exploring payment innovations ranging from biometric payment authentication and wearables to new mobile applications which will include digitally-issued cards.”
Tap Tap Cap! — Lothian — “From 24 July, our services will accept contactless payment with daily fare capping — a first for Scotland… Just tap your card on the reader when you board the bus and you will be charged an Adult Single fare. After three or more taps, the fare will be capped at our AdultDayTicket price.”
Saudi Payments, Saudi Arabia’s national payments infrastructure operator, is to use a combination of NFC and contactless payments, a new faster payments system and the introduction of a common QR code platform to reduce the use of cash and speed up its move towards a cashless society, managing director Ziad Al Yousef has told NFCW... More
Request for comments: Contactless payments on COTS standard — PCI Security Standards Council — “PCI SSC is developing a new standard for contactless payments on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices, which is planned for publication by the end of 2019. As part of the development process, PCI SSC stakeholders are invited to review and provide feedback on the draft PCI Contactless Payments on COTS (CPoC) Standard during a 30-day request for comments (RFC) period.”
Huawei rolling out new products to enhance user stickiness — Hong Kong Economic Journal — “Huawei Pay, which was launched in Hong Kong on Monday, allows users to settle bills in more than 40,000 retail spots accepting the UnionPay contactless card payment… Earlier this year, Huawei Pay was launched outside China for the first time. In Russia, 66 banks are now supporting the technology. Both Huawei and Honor smartphones will carry the new service, which is compatible with 20 mobile devices, including several smartwatches.”
Apple Pay coming to Miami fare system in August — Appleosophy — “Miami-Dade County’s fare system for their transit is set to begin accepting Apple Pay and other forms of contactless payment systems, such as Google Pay and Samsung Pay. According to an image found on Reddit, it would appear as though the Miami-Dade County transit system is set to begin accepting Apple Pay in August 2019.”
Passengers set to benefit from new contactless payments on Metrolink — Transport for Greater Manchester — “The new system will mean customers can simply touch-in at the start of a journey and touch-out at the end using a contactless bank card or another contactless-enabled payment device, such as a phone or watch. The system will then automatically work out the total daily fare for a customer’s journeys and the price will be capped — to ensure they are paying no more than the relevant adult daily one-day travelcard price.”
Maybank aims 10,000 device acceptance for Tap2Phone — The Star Online — “The payment solution enables small businesses to accept card payments from customers via the app on their mobile phones, without the need for a point-of-sale terminal… The Tap2Phone service accepts all contactless payments for transactions of RM250 [US$60.42] and below… Tap2Phone is supported by the latest Android-based smartphones equipped with near-field communication and trusted execution environment technologies.”
Unified cashless payment system rolled out at 500 hawker stalls across Singapore — The Straits Times — “The solution, provided by Nets, unifies payments from 23 providers, so dining customers can use different cashless payment options at a single payment terminal at a food outlet. This also saves hawkers the hassle of dealing with multiple e-payment firms. These include e-wallets like Singtel Dash and GrabPay, transport cards EZ-Link and Nets FlashPay, and credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard.”
The first of a new range of contactless transit cards and passes are now being made available in Paris, enabling bus, tram and metro users to begin replacing cardboard tickets with contactless alternatives... More
Apple Pay is now live in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia... More