Customers of Swedbank and Nordea Bank in Sweden are now able to load a Mastercard onto any of a range of fashion watches offered by three local watch brands and then use it to make wearable payments at any Mastercard merchant... More
Customer and cashier education, experience and communication at the point of sale (POS) are all key factors that need to be addressed to boost contactless payments adoption in the US and overcome the currently fragmented experience, according to the US Payments Forum... More
The NBK Visa Infinite Privilege Credit Card will be offered exclusively to the bank’s private banking customers, and by invitation only, once regulatory approval for the product has been received... More
PARTNER NEWS: Expresspay Card, a joint venture between China UnionPay and Bank of China that offers China’s only open loop prepaid card, has partnered with Tappy Technologies and watch brand Saga Watch to offer cardholders a wearable payments option that will be accepted at any merchant equipped to accept China UnionPay contactless payments... More
Train and bus ticketing via phones and plastic to be tested in regional Queensland — ABC News — “The new system allows train, bus and ferry rides to be paid for with the swipe of a credit or debit card, smartphone wallet or smartwatch… The project in Queensland comes with a A$371m (US$257m) price tag, but unlike systems interstate and overseas, it will take in regional cities including Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and the Gold Coast.”
“Mastercard is working with Crédit Agricole Payment Services on a biometric card pilot for 200 customers in Touraine and Poitou, who will trial the card which features an integrated fingerprint sensor... More
PARTNER NEWS: Cilab’s ci230 high speed tester takes a whole new approach to NFC testing that makes it faster and easier to conduct pre-certification testing, makes the certification process quicker and cheaper, lets customers get a fast return on investment — and a competitive advantage from speeding up time to market... More
Paciolan announces support for contactless tickets in Apple Wallet for college sports — Paciolan — “The first schools to offer contactless tickets for the fall 2019 football season include Baylor University, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, University of Mississippi, Georgia Tech, and Rutgers University.”
Have contactless cards become the tool of choice for low-value payments? — RBR — “At the end of 2017, there were 5.3bn contactless cards in circulation worldwide — this represents 35% of all cards, a share that RBR forecasts will increase to 57% by 2023… The number of eftpos terminals worldwide which allow contactless payments rose by 41% in 2017 to reach 40.9m.”
NHL takes ticketless path with Ticketmaster extension — SportsPro — “Going forward, NHL tickets will include near field communication (NFC) technology that allows fans to ‘tap’ into a venue entrance, and aims to protect against digital tickets being copied and resold… The deal comes after the NHL, which introduced mobile ticketing during its Stadium Series in 2018, experienced an 85% and 88% growth in the number of fans using mobile tickets during its 2018 and 2019 All-Star games, respectively.”
iPhone users will soon be able to read a full array of ISO 7816 contactless smartcards and tags, including passports, transit and access cards, Apple has revealed... More
American Express says to NYC Subway riders: Don’t tap and pay without It — American Express — “Beginning in July, all newly issued and replacement US American Express consumer cards will be contactless. The contactless feature is now available on all US American Express consumer cards upon request through AmericanExpress.com, the Amex mobile app, or by phone.”
BofA jumps on tap-to-pay bandwagon as NYC’s subway moves forward — Bloomberg — “The lender will send 4m contactless cards this month to customers in New York, Boston and San Francisco who have Visa debit or credit cards… It plans to measure usage in those markets before deciding on a broader rollout at the beginning of next year.”
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions has launched an integrated onboarding, authentication and mobile payments platform for Android and iOS devices that lets both traditional and challenger banks combine “best-in-class” end-to-end security with a user friendly, PSD2-compliant, mobile-first consumer experience... More
Commuters in the greater Paris region will be able to use their NFC mobile phone to store Navigo transit passes and T+ prepaid ticket books from September 2019... More
Ticketek contactless tickets on iPhone and Apple Watch go live — TEG — “Ticketek, the Australian leader in ticketing, announced today [that] Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane is Australia’s first sport and entertainment stadium to offer convenient and fast contactless tickets on iPhone and Apple Watch… Contactless tickets on iPhone and Apple Watch will be rolled out to further venues across Australia in the coming months.”
Apple Pay will soon launch in 16 more countries, including Bulgaria and Croatia — MacRumors — “Mobile banking service Monese has revealed that Apple Pay is also coming soon to its cardholders in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia… Apple Pay is also nearing launch in the Netherlands, Hungary, and Luxembourg for a total of 16 upcoming countries.”
Apple Pay launches in Hungary and Luxembourg — MacRumors — “In Luxembourg, BGL BNP Paribas is currently the sole bank supporting Apple’s digital wallet, while OTP Bank is supporting Apple Pay in Hungary… The expansion within Europe follows the launch of Apple Pay in Iceland earlier this month. Elsewhere, regional banks in The Netherlands and Portugal have teased that Apple’s contactless payment system is ‘coming soon’.”
About Omny — The MTA — “Starting on May 31, 2019, you can use Omny onboard all Staten Island buses and at all subway station entrances on the 4, 5, and 6 lines between Grand Central-42 Street and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr. All remaining bus routes, subway stations, and Staten Island Railway locations will be equipped by late 2020. You will be able to use Omny for commuter rail by early 2021.”
Ukraine’s PrivatBank has become the first in the world to provide customers with a way to customise the design of the cards they add to Google Pay or Apple Pay — beginning with a set of X-Men: Dark Phoenix original designs made available via a licensing deal with movie studio 20th Century Fox... More