Convenience of debit card payments puts cash in second place — UK Finance — “The popularity of contactless payments among UK consumers is a key driver of debit card growth. In total, across both debit and credit cards, the number of contactless payments increased by 97% during 2017 to 5.6bn. Almost two thirds (63%) of people in the UK now use contactless payments, and no age group or region falls below 50% usage.”
Contactless
Transport for London adds in-app contactless journey tracking
Contactless journeys now available to view on the go via free TfL app — Transport for London — “Customers using contactless payment cards in London can now view their journey history on the go following the latest update to the free TfL Oyster and contactless app. Half of all Tube and rail ‘pay as you go’ journeys in London are now regularly made using contactless payment cards or mobile devices.”
Amazon to pilot sound-based payments for cash on delivery service in India
Amazon backs Indian startup to replace cash with contactless payments — Bloomberg — “Amazon.com Inc wants to pilot contactless payments to boost the adoption of its payment processing service, Amazon Pay, for offline transactions in India, two people privy to the development told BloombergQuint… Amazon is looking to roll out contactless payments in the next two to three months, one of the persons quoted above said. It may start with offering the service for its Prime subscription members.”
NXP launches full-service NFC mobile wallet platform for wearable, mobile and IoT device makers
PARTNER NEWS: NXP’s new mWallet 2GO platform offers OEMs a pre-certified and validated turnkey payments solution and is being used by luxury brand Montblanc to add Visa and Mastercard payments capabilities to its watches, via its new Twin smart strap... More
ST offers contactless payments terminal ‘in a box’
PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics has released a contactless payment terminal reference design that can be used to quickly build EMV-compliant POS terminals “by making the exhaustive EMVCo certification process easier and faster than ever before.”... More
Valitor picks Dejamobile to offer mobile payments and branded mobile wallets to clients
PARTNER NEWS: Payment solutions provider Valitor is to use Dejamobile’s cloud-based payments platform to provide its clients with the ability to add mobile payments and a branded mobile wallet to their services... More
Mastercard to pilot cardless ATM withdrawals
It’s app, tap and go at ATMs thanks to Mastercard and Diebold Nixdorf — Mastercard — “Here’s how it works: Consumers open their bank’s app on their smartphone. They use the app to find nearby ATMs, choose the amount they want to withdraw and see the associated fees. Once at the ATM, they quickly snap or tap, often by scanning a QR code, authenticate using optional biometrics on device, and take the dispensed cash.”
Italian merchants to pilot PIN-on-mobile payments
Ingenico and Nexi test in Italy an innovative PIN-on-mobile solution compliant with Visa and Mastercard requirements — Ingenico — “With PIN-on-mobile, card owners manually enter their PIN on a non PCI-PTS device owned by a merchant, such as a smartphone or tablet. The transactions are considered as ‘card present’… This solution will be on a six-month trial period and the pilot project will include 1000+ secure card readers (SCR) to read EMV and contactless bank cards.”
TCL picks ST’s NFC controller for Alcatel 3V smartphone
STMicroelectronics’ NFC technology chosen to distinguish TCL Communication’s Alcatel 3V smartphone through outstanding contactless user experience — STMicroelectronics — PARTNER NEWS — “ST’s technology ensures robust connectivity for fast and reliable contactless payments, e-ticket transactions, peer-to-peer data transfer, and emerging use cases including interacting with ‘physical web’ objects like smart posters or store shelves. Superior RF performance also helped TCL Communication to streamline certification to mandatory stringent EMVCo, GSMA and NFC Forum standards for handsets.”
London’s buskers to go contactless
Busking goes cashless with ‘a world first’ for London — BBC — “London has introduced a contactless payment scheme for buskers in what the organisers claim is a world first. In addition to tossing loose change into a box, passers-by can use card readers to make contactless payments…The scheme will be be rolled out across the city after successful trials.”
JCB to add support for Google Pay in Japan
JCB to offer Google Pay in Japan — JCB — “JCB will enable Google Pay for in-store payments in Japan through its QuicPay contactless payment solution. At launch, Google Pay users will be able to make payments on their enrolled JCB credit, debit, or prepaid card at convenience stores, supermarkets, drugstores, and other shops where QuicPay is accepted and online wherever JCB is accepted. Credit, debit, and prepaid cards can be enrolled using the Google Pay app on Osaifu Keitai supported devices with Android OS 5.0 or higher version.”
Translink adds mobile payments for transit users in Vancouver
Tap to Pay — Translink — “On May 22, our card readers will accept contactless Visa and Mastercard credit cards and Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. For customers without Compass Cards, this new feature will mean no more ticket line-ups, digging for exact change, or worrying about pre-calculating zones. You can tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card or mobile-payment method on card readers to pay your adult, cash fare. Note: card readers will not accept debit cards.”
Okey Co explains how its contactless keyfob can unlock new NFC business opportunities
PARTNER NEWS: A presentation that sets out the potential of the Okey — a standalone, multifunction NFC keyfob that can store multiple contactless payment, transit, loyalty and identity cards — is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Phoenix reports drop in number of US consumers making use of Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay
“Not just Apple Pay, but the two other major third party contactless wallets, Google Pay (formerly Android Pay) and Samsung Pay, are tracing a slow but definite descent in adoption among smartphone owners”, research conducted by Phoenix Marketing International has found... More
Mastercard to let cardholders self-enrol on biometric payment cards
Mastercard pioneers remote biometric card enrolment — Mastercard — “Through significant research and development, a revolutionary battery-powered sleeve will now let people self-enrol their contact or contactless biometric card. Their fingerprint is scanned by the sensor on the card and an encrypted digital template is created and securely stored… ‘Now we have a sleeve to register fingerprints so people don’t have to make a trip to a bank branch.'”
Paytm introduces NFC payments in India
Paytm Tap Card launched, allows offline payments in less than a second — NDTV — “There are a large number of people who at times do not have access to the internet or they have a limited daily budget so they shy away from using online payments. For them, we offer the Paytm Tap Card to enable seamless offline payments. For ensuring a wider acceptance, we are also reaching out to the merchants and are actively enabling them with NFC POS terminals to accept payments.”
Ingenico and USA Technologies team up to bring contactless payments to unattended retail locations
Ingenico Group and USA Technologies announce a three year strategic alliance agreement — USA Technologies — PARTNER NEWS — “Through the Alliance Agreement, both companies will partner to pursue the unattended retail marketplace with a bundled solution that pairs Ingenico Group’s innovative hardware, software, security and services solutions portfolio with USAT’s comprehensive ePort Connect services platform specifically designed for the unattended retail market.”
Contactless payments are now used for half of all public transport journeys in London
Half of all London’s pay as you go journeys are now contactless — MayorWatch — “Figures released by Transport for London show that more than 17m contactless pay as you go journeys are now made using contactless each week, with more than 1.7bn journeys made since launch.”
Charity to roll out contactless donation screens following successful three week pilot
Contactless donations project raises thousands for homeless in Cardiff — Wales Online — “The interactive window in the city centre allows passers-by to tap their card on the screen and donate £2 (US$2.85) to homeless charities… A total of 430 kind-hearted shoppers in Cardiff swiped their contactless cards to give money to the homeless in just three weeks… Following its success during the trial in March the Give DIFFerently campaign now hopes to roll out more contactless points across the city.”
Alfa-Bank introduces instant mobile debit card issuance
Order a card a minute before payment — Alfa-Bank (translation) — “Instant issuing of the card in the application is a breakthrough technology that allows Alfa-Bank customers to order and start using the required bank card in less than a minute… Alfa-Bank is the first in the Russian market to offer its customers this opportunity… The card can be immediately added to Apple Pay and used to pay for purchases using a smartphone wherever contactless payment terminals are installed, in applications and on websites.”