NatWest Bank has begun a three-month pilot of bank cards incorporating a fingerprint... More
NatWest Bank begins UK’s first trial of contactless biometric cards
Digital banking
Starling Bank passports to Europe, first stop Ireland
Starling Bank passports to Europe, first stop Ireland — Techcrunch — “After a staggered launch of its current account kicked off in March, the digital-only bank is announcing imminent expansion to Europe, starting with the Republic of Ireland where it has attained a so-called ‘banking passport’.”
Mastercard and Western Union explore digital model for refugee camps
Mastercard and Western Union explore digital model for refugee camps — Mastercard — “Mastercard and Western Union examined the needs, challenges and opportunities for refugees and their host communities at two settlement camps in northwestern Kenya. The findings have led to the development of Smart Communities: Using Digital Technology to Create Sustainable Refugee Economies, a blueprint that would combine digital access to remittances, banking, education, healthcare and other basic needs.”
3bn digital banking users by 2021
Nearly 3bn users will have access to retail banking services through smartphones, tablets, PCs and smartwatches by 2021, Juniper Research reveals, up 53% from 2017... More
Mobile wallet provider to launch payments bank
Indian mobile payments provider Paytm has been granted permission from the Reserve Bank of India to formally launch a payments bank... More
Apple Pay offered for HSBC Singapore customers
Apple Pay is now available for HSBC Singapore customers holding Visa and MasterCard credit cards, allowing them to make payments in stores with Visa payWave or MasterCard contactless payment terminals... More
Emirates NBD to launch digital bank for millennials
Emirates NBD has announced plans to launch the UAE’s first digital bank targeted at millennials as part of its commitment to invest AED 500m (US$136m) in “digital innovation and multichannel transformation” over the next three years... More
Telefonica and Fidor Bank to launch mobile bank in Germany
Mobile network operator Telefonica is to launch a mobile banking service in Germany this summer using technology supplied by Fidor Bank... More
Half of Canadian bankers not yet ready for mobile payments
Nearly half of Canadian banking executives (46%) do not think they have the IT infrastructure systems and processes in place to meet present and future customer expectations for mobile payments, research from telecommunications provider CenturyLink reveals. “70% said they don’t have the infrastructure in place, or it needs improvement, for digital channels,” the company adds... More
Gulf Bank brings contactless POS with NFC
Gulf Bank has become the first bank in Kuwait to launch contactless POS terminals capable of accepting NFC payments, following a partnership with electronic banking services company Knet and MasterCard... More
Lloyds Bank authenticates customers with contactless ‘tap to bank’ service
Lloyds Bank is testing a ‘tap to bank’ service that lets its mobile banking app users tap their contactless debit card against their NFC phone to authenticate themselves during the mobile banking registration process... More
Intelligent Environments replaces PINs with emoji passcodes
Software provider Intelligent Environments has launched an emoji-only passcode system that lets consumers log into their bank’s mobile app using four emoji characters instead of traditional PINs... More
Wintrust lets customers withdraw cash with their mobile phones
Wintrust Financial is updating its fleet of 190 ATMs in Chicago to enable its mobile banking customers to withdraw cash by requesting money on their smartphone then scanning an on-screen QR code when they get to the ATM. More
Westpac adds fingerprint access
Westpac customers with an Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S5 or Note 4 incorporating a fingerprint sensor will be able to use the technology to log into their mobile banking app from January 2015, the Australian bank has announced... More
Consult Hyperion demos EMV mobile payments over BLE on an iPhone
UK payments technology specialist Consult Hyperion has unveiled a proof-of-concept solution that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and host card emulation (HCE) to enable both iPhone and Android NFC phone owners to make MasterCard, Visa and other open loop EMV payments at the point of sale... More
PayPal pays next day
PayPal is piloting Next-Day Settlement (NDS), a new service that cuts the time taken for transfers between a merchant’s PayPal account and their bank account from the usual three or four days to 24 hours... More
British Banking Association reports on UK’s banking ‘revolution’
Mobile and internet banking in the UK is now being used for transactions worth nearly £1bn a day and totalling £6.4bn a week, up from £5.8bn last year, according to an industry-wide report on how mobile technology is changing the banking industry from the British Banking Association and Ernst & Young... More