The number of US consumers who use their smartphone to scan QR codes to make contactless payments and for a wide range of other use cases such as scanning codes in print publications, on restaurant menus and in retail outlets will rise from 83.4 million in 2022 to 99.5 million by 2025, according to an Insider Intelligence forecast... More
The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a “global surge” in digital payments with two-thirds of adults worldwide now making or receiving digital payments, rising from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021 in developing economies and from 88% in 2014 to 95% in 2021 in high-income economies, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database... More
The delivery of payment cards worldwide will continue to be “severely” impacted by global chip shortages and disruptions in the supply chains of other materials into and throughout 2023, according to a Smart Payment Association (SPA) forecast... More
Residents of Ethiopia will be among the first in Africa to be able to acquire a dedicated contactless health card that stores their digitised medical data — including their Covid-19 vaccination records — and enables them to make that data available to healthcare professionals without needing an internet connection to access online databases... More
Samsung Galaxy users in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK can now store their digital payment, loyalty and membership cards as well as digital keys, boarding passes and Covid-19 vaccination certificates on their smartphone using the Samsung Wallet app... More
The total number of contactless payment cards and modules shipped globally exceeded 2bn for the first time and accounted for more than three-quarters of the overall total of 2.63bn smart payment card and module shipments during 2021 (76%), according to figures released by the Smart Payment Association (SPA)... More
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA are rewarding passengers for opting for the digital version of the Clipper stored-value transit card “because global supply chain issues have depleted the inventory of plastic cards”, the MTC says... More
The price of EMV-compliant chips supplied to contactless payment card manufacturers increased by more than 50% in 2021 and is expected to rise by more than 20% during 2022 with the overall cost to card issuers for finished first-use plastic cards rising by between 5% and 20% during 2021, according to US research firm Nilson Report... More
Six in ten consumers in Germany now make contactless payments with their smartphone or a contactless card (60%), an increase from 56% in 2021 and 47% in 2020, according to a survey conducted by Postbank... More
The total number of payments in the USA made using cash fell from just over one in four in 2019 (26%) to under one in five in 2020 (19%) before increasing slightly to 20% in 2021, the Federal Reserve reports... More
Google is rolling out a digital wallet that will enable users to store, use and present digital identity documents and driving licences as well as payment cards, transit and event tickets, boarding and loyalty passes, health documents such as Covid-19 vaccination certificates, hotel keys and office badges on their Android smartphone or Wear OS smartwatch... More
Residents of Vietnam will soon be able to store a digital vaccine passport on their Android or iOS device that enables border officials to verify an individual travelling abroad has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by scanning a QR code... More
Passengers on Holland America Line cruise ships will soon be able to check in before embarkation with their face using contactless biometric face verification technology and confirm their health status with a digital version of their Covid-19 vaccination certificate or test results stored on their mobile device... More
Customers of Al-Mansour Bank in Iraq will be among the first in the country to be able to trial biometric payment cards that allow them to authenticate contactless payments with their fingerprints... More
The value of the average contactless payment made in the UK has risen by 30% since the country increased its contactless spending limit from £45 (US$59) to £100 (US$132) in October last year, according to figures from UK Finance... More
Some 95% of passengers travelling with AirAsia now use the Malaysian airline’s contactless self-check-in service that enables them to receive an e-boarding pass, choose their seat and add baggage, in-flight meals and travel insurance via the airline’s app or website... More
The number of contactless card purchases made worldwide will increase by an average of 23% a year and reach a total of more than 522bn by 2026, up by more than 370bn on the 149bn recorded in 2020, according to a forecast by Retail Banking Research (RBR)... More
The Digital Identity Working Group (DIWG), made up of digital identity specialists from eight Digital Government Exchange (DGX) member states across the world, has identified 11 core principles to support international collaboration on the development of mutually recognised and interoperable digital identity systems and infrastructure... More
Nearly two thirds of branded and independent hotels will be offering mobile room keys (64.1%) and more than three quarters will have implemented self-service check-in options including contactless kiosks and mobile check-in (75.4%) by the end of 2022, according to a survey by New York University (NYU)... More
Eight in ten card payments made in the Nordic countries during 2021 were contactless, an increase from 74% in 2020, according to figures from regional payments processor Nets... More