Customers of Orange Bank in Spain will now be automatically issued with a digital debit card that they can use to instantly begin making mobile payments both online and in-store — and can also request a companion physical card that comes without a printed card number, CVC code or expiration date... More
7-Eleven is running a pilot of a new mobile payments service that includes an option for iPhone owners to use Siri to pay for their fuel from their vehicle using only their voice... More
Visa has announced that it has now issued more than 1bn tokens through its Visa Token Service (VTS) and there are now more than 8,200 issuers using the service in 150 markets around the world... More
Consumer-facing solutions and programmes based on EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) specifications are now to be known as Click to Pay, the standards body has announced... More
Taiwan is to introduce a Triple Stimulus voucher programme that will enable residents to buy NT$3,000 (US$100) worth of shopping vouchers for NT$1,000 (US$33.34) — or receive an equivalent cashback credit to their card or mobile wallet... More
Google is piloting a new service that lets Google Assistant users confirm payment for a purchase with just their voice... More
Apple iPhone users in Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton will soon be able to use their Presto app to top up their transit card via NFC... More
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to tighten up its regulations “to ensure payments firms are adequately protecting customer funds” amid concerns that the impact of Covid-19 will affect their financial viability... More
Since mid-March, first-time users of Interac’s e-Transfer service have increased by 43% and the average number of transactions has increased by 9% compared to the same time last year, the Canadian domestic debit card network provider has revealed... More
A new amendment to the Swedish Payment Services Act means that online merchants must now present non-credit options ahead of any options that involve the consumer taking out credit... More
Garmin smartwatch owners in Japan can now add their Suica transit card to their wearable device and use it to pay for public transportation and at stores that accept Suica payments... More
PayPal users in 28 countries across the world are now able to use their PayPal app to make QR code-based mobile payments in stores — and standard seller transaction fees are being waived “for a limited time” for merchants using the new functionality... More
An additional 110m contactless payment cards will be issued in 2020 compared with pre-Covid-19 forecast expectations, ABI Research predicts, bringing the total in circulation to more than 2bn... More
BharatPe launches two new features in its app to curb need to touch handsets for checking transactions — Economic Times — “With Paisa Bolega — voice alerts of transactions — shopkeepers will be able to hear aloud instant confirmation of all payments received through their BharatPe QR, without touching the phone… This does away [with] the need for the merchant to check his phone repeatedly to see if money has come in.”
“While the full impact of Covid-19 on tap to pay adoption across the world is yet to be fully seen, early indications highlight a shift in consumer spend toward every day, essential segments where contactless usage is high, such as grocery and pharmacy,” Visa says... More
Safaricom and Visa join forces in seeking to expand access to digital payments for M-Pesa consumers and merchants — Safaricom — “The partnership will cover over 24 million M-Pesa customers, more than 173,000 Lipa Na M-Pesa merchants from Safaricom and more than 61m merchant locations throughout Visa’s global network, and over 3.4bn Visa cards in more than 200 countries and territories, subject to regulatory approval.”
LG CNS is piloting a new payments solution that combines face recognition, a blockchain-based digital currency and AI technology to let shoppers enter an unmanned store, shop and check out — without needing to come into close contact with either employees or POS equipment... More
Internal closed pilot tests of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) developed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) are to be conducted in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an New District, Chengdu, and at Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics locations, China’s central bank has revealed... More
Merchants in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania are to participate in the pilot of a new mobile POS (mPOS) service that enables contactless payments to be accepted on Android mobile devices “without the need for any additional hardware”... More
Chinese mobile payments giant Alipay has announced a three-year plan to evolve its current offering into an open financial services and digital lifestyle platform — and has set a target of attracting 40m service providers by 2030... More