A digital transaction settlement system being developed by researchers working on Facebook’s Novi cryptocurrency digital wallet app could support up to 160,000 transactions per second, “about 7x the peak transaction rate of the Visa payments network”, according to a paper published by the research team... More
Global shipments of wearable devices will reach a total of 396m units this year and increase to 637.1m in 2024, with the proportion of those offering support for contactless payments set to rise to nearly 50% by the end of the year, International Data Corp (IDC) predicts... More
The weekly volume of mobile wallet debit card transactions in the USA has increased by 70.3% compared with this time last year, while weekly mobile wallet credit card transactions have grown by 50.4% over the same period, according to the PSCU’s latest Tracking Transaction Trends report... More
Digital wallet transactions grew 17% in March 2020, outpacing the average monthly compound growth rate of 6.7% over the past six months, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reports... More
IBM awarded patent for ‘self-aware token’ — Coindesk — “The patent outlines a ledger-based payments system that could make it easier for individual users, businesses and governments to track and trace transactions made using a cryptocurrency. Dubbed the ‘self-aware token’, it is designed to record all transaction data when not being used on a payments platform IBM patented in 2012. When the token rejoins the platform ecosystem at a later stage, it automatically uploads data from any ‘off-line transactions’.”
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a new Opinion that provides the European payments industry with an EU-wide additional 15 months to comply with strong customer authentication (SCA) requirements for online ecommerce transactions... More
WeChat Pay supports merchants expanding businesses by bringing its ecosystem to the world — WeChat Pay — “In 2018, the monthly average transaction volume saw an increase of 500% year on year, while the total transaction value increased 400%. Meanwhile, the number of service providers witnessed a year-on-year increase [of] 300%, and the number of merchants accepting WeChat Pay increased 700%. WeChat Pay is now available in 49 markets outside of the Chinese mainland, supporting cross-border payment transactions in 16 currencies.”
GSMA report highlights 20% annual increase in mobile money accounts to more than 866m worldwide — GSMA — “At the end of 2018, there were more than 866m registered accounts in 90 countries — a 20% increase on 2017. The report also shows that the mobile money industry processed transactions worth US$1.3bn a day in 2018, with digital transaction values growing at more than twice the rate of cash transactions.”
General-purpose contactless payments continue to struggle on US transit systems — Digital Transactions — “The Salt Lake City-based Utah Transit Authority, a pioneer in contactless fare payments, has discontinued acceptance of general-purpose contactless mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. The UTA also no longer accepts contactless general-purpose payment cards, though such cards aren’t yet common in the United States. Only 112 riders on average used those forms of payment — far less than 1% of UTA’s average of 147,728 weekday boardings as of last December, according to a spokesperson.”
Worldpay tests dynamic CVV cards in anticipation of broader availability — Digital Transactions — “Worldpay is testing the Motion Code-enabled credit and debit cards with two undisclosed credit unions and a bank before broader availability, expected later this year. The hope is to make online shopping more secure… A dynamic CVV means a criminal may obtain the card number, but will be unable to verify the CVV because it will have changed.”
They may not like the terms, but issuers will likely re-up for Apple Pay — Digital Transactions — “The first big wave of Apple Pay contracts are expiring this month, and a big question for both Apple Inc and the financial institutions that committed to support the computing giant’s mobile payments app is whether to renew, and under what terms, in the face of less-than-spectacular results for mobile payments generally… Expert observers and financial institution executives argue most if not all of the early signees are likely to re-up or have already done so, despite financial terms many experts consider unusual if not onerous.”
PARTNER NEWS: Transaction technology provider Carta Worldwide has introduced an appliance-based turnkey solution that aims to dramatically reduce the time it takes for large banks, processors and domestic networks to bring tokenized HCE mobile payment services to market... More
The full 19-page contract that banks wishing to offer Apple Pay to their cardholders must sign in order to take part has been leaked to Digital Transactions... More