Norwich hospital charity introduces cashless donations for visitors — UK Fundraising — “Visitors to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals are now able to make donations to the NHS Trust charity using a variety of tap-to-donate tools ranging from vinyl stickers and ‘smart’ posters… The Trust is also using the technology to turn (charity-funded) wheelchairs into instant donation points.”
Contactless
Moscow Metro to offer contactless payment rings to commuters
Moscow Metro to introduce fare payment rings — The Moscow Times — “The gadget will allow commuters to pay their fare anywhere that accepts the Troika transport card. The pass gives commuters access to Moscow’s bus, train and metro systems and is currently used by an estimated 10.5 million people… The payment rings will go on sale at the Moscow metro’s two souvenir shops and kiosks at a dozen stations across the Russian capital.”
M-Pesa rolls out contactless tags and wristbands for faster mobile money transactions in stores
Safaricom extends M-Pesa 1Tap — Safaricom — “Following successful trials over the last four months in Nakuru, Safaricom has today announced the availability of M-Pesa 1Tap in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret and Nyeri… To make a payment, a merchant will key in the payment amount into their device, tap the customer tag, and the customer will then key in their pin on their phone to validate the payment. This cuts down the steps involved from more than eight steps using the M-Pesa tool on SIM cards to just one step for the customer.”
Baseball team uses iOS 11 to issue NFC tickets to fans
An MLB team is using the iPhone’s NFC feature for contactless stadium entry — Techcrunch — “The Oakland Athletics are piloting a new NFC ticketing solution which lets fans enter the stadium by tapping their phone (or Apple Watch) to a ticket scanner — just like you’d do to use Apple Pay. The feature uses the NFC technology that is used for contactless rewards cards (like Walgreens Balance Rewards) via Apple Pay, and this is the first time the technology is being used outside of reward cards or stored balance gift cards.”
Timex adds contactless payments to watchstraps
Barclaycard teams up with Timex to launch contactless watch — Campaign — “In the new watch, named the Fairfield Contactless, bPay has been embedded in its leather strap and users can make purchases up to £30 (US$40). The watch retails for £159 (US$213) but the contactless straps can be purchased separately. It will be available for sale in early November.”
Apple publishes Face ID security white paper
Face ID Security — Apple — “To authorize an in-store payment with Face ID, you must first confirm intent to pay by double-clicking the side button. You then authenticate using Face ID before placing your iPhone X near the contactless payment reader. If you’d like to select a different Apple Pay payment method after Face ID authentication, you’ll need to reauthenticate, but you won’t have to double-click the side button again.”
Contactless ‘beer wall’ lets students serve and pay for their own drinks
Reading University introduces self-serve 16-tap ‘beer wall’ — The Telegraph — “With students able to pour themselves a beer and pay with their contactless plastic or mobile wallet, the bars will have increased capacity, speedier service and a reduced threat of theft, claims Drink Command, the company behind the self-serve beer technology, which is also being rolled out in other bars across the UK and Ireland, including in Hilton Hotels.”
Premier Food Service adds rewards to contactless vending machines
Premier Food Service selects USA Technologies as a strategic partner as they move toward connecting 100% of their machines to cashless payment — USA Technologies — PARTNER NEWS — “‘As personalization becomes more common in the marketplace, we wanted to be one step ahead of the trend with customer loyalty and reward programs being at the center of our go-to-market strategy,’ said Gary Kurth, chief operations officer, Premier Food Service… ‘USAT has made it easy for companies like ours to quickly deploy innovative cashless payment technologies across our business so that we can better engage consumers at the point-of-sale and build in customer loyalty programs.’”
US iPhone users ‘unlikely’ to use Face ID for payments
40% of Apple users to spurn facial recognition, according to Juniper survey — Juniper Research — “A new survey conducted by Juniper Research has found that over 40% of iOS users in the US consider themselves unlikely to use facial recognition as a payment security technology… Contactless payment users considered fingerprint sensors and voice recognition more appealing authentication methods, with 74% and 62% respectively saying they are likely to use these technologies.”
ING doubles charity donations with contactless collection box
No spare change? No excuse! — ING — “From March to July, a three-person team ran a pilot in the Netherlands for the box with 19 charity organisations… Not only was the overall process much quicker, the donor’s behaviour changed. The average donation doubled compared to the traditional cash-based collecting, from €1.50 (US$1.79) to €3.20 (US$3.82).”
More than half of consumers in US, Canada and UK expect to abandon cash in next two years
Consumers to abandon cash by 2020 — Paysafe — “In Canada and the UK, contactless has paved the way for this new era of payments, with three out of five consumers regularly using it for purchases, 62% citing it as more convenient than cash, and 44% stating they preferred to shop in places that take contactless… However, it is America that is very much leading the way in new payment methods with nearly a third (31%) using mobile wallets and one in seven using cryptocurrencies.”
Singapore to add mobile options to contactless transit payments trial
Parliament: Cashless trial for public transport to be extended to more payment types from next year — The Straits Times — “A trial system that allows commuters to pay their public transport fares using contactless credit or debit cards will be extended to more payment types including Visa and Nets 2.0 from next June (2018). Mobile payment modes — such as Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay — will also be available from the first quarter of next year as part of the trial.”
MediaTek to offer OEMs ‘complete mobile payment platform’ that uses STMicroelectronics NFC technology
PARTNER NEWS: Mobile chipset giant MediaTek has integrated STMicroelectronics’ NFC technology into its mobile platforms, creating “a complete solution for handset developers to design next-generation smartphones capable of supporting tightly integrated NFC mobile services”... More
GlobalPlatform publishes on-device NFC service management specification
GlobalPlatform publishes on-device NFC service management specification — GlobalPlatform — “GlobalPlatform Managing Entity Specification has been published, completing a ‘stack’ of complementary software standards from ETSI and the NFC Forum that ensures multiple mobile contactless services successfully coexist within a device and will operate as intended, regardless of the hosting environment selected by the service provider.”
Police chief says safer to keep contactless cap at £30
Police chief says safer to keep contactless cap at £30 — Evening Standard — “A poll last month found that more than half of retailers wanted the contactless limit increased… About 2.7p (US$0.04) in every £100 (US$129.70) that was spent was lost to contactless fraud last year.”
Emerging markets top mobile payments awareness index
More than half of consumers around the world (52%) now say they know which types of mobile payment services are available to them today, but the percentage varies widely between individual countries and across different regions and consumers in emerging markets are significantly more aware of their options than those in the developed world... More
Barclaycard marks the 10th anniversary of introducing contactless payments to the UK
Barclaycard marks the 10th anniversary of introducing contactless payments to the UK — Barclaycard — “Ten years on, over £60bn (US$77.67bn) has been spent using contactless and more than half of eligible transactions up to the £30 (US$38.83) limit are now made using the technology… Nine in 10 eligible transactions in fast food outlets (91%) and pubs and bars (89%) are now made using contactless.”
The contactless revolution ten years on: Two-thirds of Brits now tap to pay
The contactless revolution ten years on: Two-thirds of Brits now tap to pay — Visa — “Two-thirds (66%) of Brits have used contactless cards to make a payment since they were introduced in September 2007… Just over a quarter (26%) of the country has used a mobile device to pay contactlessly in a shop, rising to 36% among contactless card users.”
eMarketer releases latest estimates for US proximity mobile payments
eMarketer releases latest estimates for US proximity mobile payments — eMarketer — “eMarketer estimates the value of US proximity mobile payment transactions will total US$49.29 billion in 2017, up 78.1% from last year… The average annual spend per proximity mobile payment user in the US will reach US$1,026 in 2017, surpassing US$1,000 for the first time. That figure will continue to grow through 2021, when it will reach US$2,646.”
Meet the car key that’s also a contactless payment card
Meet the car key that’s also a contactless payment card — Techradar — “DS Automobiles has just launched the UK’s first contactless payment car key. Made for the DS 3 Connected Chic, the key works with Barclays’ bPay platform, allowing you to ‘top up’ the clever key with credit that can be spent at any shop that offers contactless payments.”