Central bank launches digital currency in the Bahamas
Citizens of the Bahamas can now make payments and transfers from a digital wallet using the country’s Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Digital wallet
Shenzhen residents spend nearly 9m digital yuan during CBDC pilot
China’s ‘red envelope’ lottery giveaway of digital yuan to 50,000 residents of Shenzhen resulted in 62,788 transactions with a total value of 8.764m yuan (US$1.32m) during the week-long central bank digital currency (CBDC) test in the city... More
Six in ten US merchants now accept contactless payments
The percentage of merchants in the USA that now accept contactless payments has risen to 58% from 40% last year, while those accepting mobile payments from digital wallets has gone up to 56% from last year’s 44%, according to research released by the National Retail Federation (NRF)... More
Razer pilots prepaid card that lights up when used for contactless payments
Users of Razer Pay, a digital wallet operated by gaming lifestyle brand Razer in Singapore, are taking part in the beta test of a premium prepaid card that lights up whenever a contactless payment is made... More
PBOC distributes digital currency to consumers via red envelope lottery
Consumers in the city of Shenzhen are being offered the opportunity to win one of 50,000 ‘red envelopes’ containing 200 digital yuan (US$29.65) that they can spend at any of more than 3,000 retail outlets in the city that now accept China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
PBOC reports results of central bank digital currency pilot
More than 113,000 Chinese consumers have now used a digital wallet supporting “multiple payment methods, including barcode, facial recognition and tap-and-go transactions” to conduct a transaction using China’s new central bank digital currency, the People’s Bank of China has revealed. More
Adelaide Metro pilots contactless bank card and digital wallet payments for tram ticketing
Passengers on Adelaide Metro’s tram network can now make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card or their tap-and-pay digital wallet without needing a metroCARD transit card or using cash... More
Apple lets kids use their Apple Watch to make payments with Apple Pay
Parents with an iPhone can now transfer funds to their children’s Apple Watch so they can then use it to make payments using Apple Pay... More
Klip digital wallet goes live in UAE
Customers of First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq Bank and the National Bank of Fujairah in the UAE can now make cashless digital payments using Klip, the digital wallet that forms part of the country’s new national digital cash replacement platform... More
UAE to launch national digital cash replacement platform that works for both banked and unbanked consumers
Both banked and unbanked residents of the UAE will soon be able to make instant cashless digital payments using a digital cash platform which they can either link directly to their bank accounts or add value to with cash at registered locations... More
European Commission opens preliminary investigation into Visa’s staged digital wallet rules
The European Commission has opened a preliminary investigation into Visa’s rules regarding staged digital wallets, the payments network has revealed in a note added to its latest quarterly filing... More
Bermuda trials digital stimulus token to distribute financial aid to citizens’ mobile phones
Residents and retailers in Bermuda are taking part in a pilot to test the viability of a “digital stimulus token”, which the Bermudan Government hopes to use to distribute financial aid more efficiently and to facilitate the purchase of food and other essential items during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic... More
GlobalPlatform releases secure customer authentication specification
GlobalPlatform has released a new specification designed to simplify the integration of strong customer authentication (SCA) for payments, banking, transport and identity applications... More
CVS Pharmacy to accept PayPal QR payments in 8,000 US stores
PayPal has signed a deal with CVS Pharmacy to roll out its new QR code-based payments technology across more than 8,000 of the US retailer’s stores nationwide... More
China to expand central bank digital currency pilot to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced that pilot testing of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) developed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is to be expanded to cover the country’s major commercial regions and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau... More
US Bank lets companies instantly send a corporate card to employees’ mobile phones
Corporate customers of US Bank can now send a digital corporate card directly to an employee, contractor, volunteer or customer’s mobile phone, enabling them to instantly begin charging online and in-store purchases to the company — subject to a strict spending limit and expiration date... More
European banks to create cross-border instant payments system
Sixteen major European banks have announced plans to jointly create a new company that will be tasked with delivering “a seamless, competitive and unified payment solution” for in-store, online and P2P payments across Europe... More
KBC rolls out support for wearable payments
Customers of Belgium’s KBC bank can now add their debit card to their choice of a range of wearables and then use their new ring, watch, keyring or bracelet to make payments at any merchant equipped to accept contactless payments... More
Google Pay to evolve into ‘one-stop portal’ for commerce?
Google is working on “a major overhaul” of Google Pay that will see the service expanding into “a one-stop portal for commerce”, The Information reports... More
Visa files central bank digital currency ecosystem patent
Visa has filed an application for a patent that sets out a way for a central bank to take fiat money that is currently in circulation, digitize it, remove the converted physical currency from circulation and then enable consumers and merchants to conduct transactions using a digital wallet “stored on a chip of a smartcard or a secure element of a user device”... More
