Employees travelling on Seoul Metro’s Ui-Sinseol light rapid transit line in South Korea are testing a face recognition payment system that enables passengers to pay their fares without needing to tap a smartphone or card or remove their face mask... More
Coronavirus
Global digital wallet spending to top $10tn in 2025
The total value of digital wallet transactions globally will reach more than US$10tn in 2025, according to Juniper Research, “with over 34% of mobile handsets set to use contactless payments in 2025, up from 11% in 2020.”... More
Vaccine credentials coalition to develop interoperable digital Covid-19 passport
A coalition of technology and healthcare providers in the US has launched an initiative to develop a solution that will enable individuals to store and access their Covid-19 vaccination records in their digital wallet “in a secure, verifiable and privacy preserving way”... More
UK government to issue parents with digital free school meal cards
UK parents whose children are eligible for free school meals will be able to receive digital vouchers they can use on their smartphone or tablet to buy food at participating retail outlets while schools remain closed during the country’s second lockdown, the UK government has announced... More
UK to trial digital Covid-19 immunity and vaccination passports
UK residents are to take part in a pilot of a digital immunity and vaccination passport that enables them to use their mobile phone to disclose their Covid-19 test results or vaccination status without revealing their identity... More
Kenya to combine cashless payments with Covid contact tracing on Matatu minibuses
Passengers using Matatu minibus services in Kenya will no longer be able to pay their fares with cash once a digital fare collection system commissioned by the country’s National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is rolled out... More
IATA to launch digital travel pass for contactless ID and vaccination verification
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is to roll out a digital travel pass that will enable passengers to store verified identity documents such as their e-passport and verified Covid-19 test results or inoculation records on their iPhone or Android device... More
Los Angeles to let residents add vaccination certificates to mobile wallets
Residents of Los Angeles County in the USA will be able to verify that they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and receive a reminder to have a second dose of the vaccine via a digital record they can store in their Apple Wallet or “competing Google platform”... More
Moscow Metro lets Google Pay users pay fares without unlocking their phones
Android NFC phone users travelling on the Moscow Metro system in the Russian capital can now pay for their tickets directly from Google Pay by tapping a turnstile equipped with a contactless fare terminal — without having to first unlock their smartphone... More
US Bank lets customers send a greeting card with their P2P payment
Customers of US Bank can now add a personalised digital greetings card when they use the bank’s mobile app to make a Zelle P2P transfer to anyone with a US bank account... More
Challenger bank to test biometric payment cards in Sweden
Customers of Swedish challenger bank Rocker will soon be able to take part in a proof-of-concept pilot of a biometric debit card that enables them to authenticate contactless in-store payments with their fingerprint... More
India increases contactless limit by 150%
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to raise the limit for contactless card transactions from Rs2,000 (US$27) to Rs5,000 ($67.67) from 1 January 2021, an increase of 150%... More
Mastercard adds NFC payments to virtual corporate cards
Businesses in the US can now issue their employees with virtual corporate cards that can be loaded into a mobile wallet and used to make payments at contactless point-of-sale terminals... More
Penn State researchers develop NFC sensors that can be printed directly onto human skin
Researchers at Penn State University in the USA have developed a wearable wireless sensor that can be printed directly onto a person’s skin to take precise biometric measurements and transmit data to an NFC smartphone or similar device... More
UN reports on impact of Covid-19 on ecommerce payments in developing countries
Ecommerce businesses in 23 of the world’s poorer nations have seen “a notable increase” in digital payments as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)... More
Mashreq Bank rolls out contactless payments on standard NFC phones
Owners of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UAE can now accept contactless payments on standard Android NFC smartphones, with no need for additional hardware... More
McKinsey and EBA identify threats to European banks’ payments revenues
The central role traditionally played by banks in the European payments ecosystem “may be coming under challenge” as some specialist payments providers reach double-digit growth rates in payment revenues, according to a report jointly published by the Euro Banking Association and McKinsey & Company... More
SBI Card integrates NFC payments into mobile app
SBI Card Mastercard holders in India can now make NFC payments at any contactless point-of-sale terminal from their mobile device after registering their credit card on the latest version of the payment service’s app... More
Japanese airline turns to mobile payments to boost revenues during Covid-19
Frequent flyers with All Nippon Airways (ANA) will soon be able to make in-store purchases and accumulate air miles by using a QR code-enabled mobile payments service that the Japanese airline is to launch “amid shrinking travel demand due to the coronavirus outbreak,” Japan Today reports... More
OP Financial to pilot biometric payment card in Finland
Finland’s OP Financial Group is to pilot a biometric payment card that will allow users to authenticate payments over the contactless transaction limit with their fingerprint rather than with a PIN... More