Luxembourg-based mobile payments and loyalty provider Mobey is to launch its FlashiZ prepaid service in Australia by the end of this year... More
FlashiZ to expand NFC and QR payments service to Australia
Digital wallet
AirPlus and Deutsche Telekom begin NFC payment pilot
Business travel payment specialist AirPlus International has launched an NFC pilot in Germany, in partnership with mobile network operator Deutsche Telekom... More
Wireless Dynamics launches NFC case for iPhone 5
A version of Canadian NFC and RFID specialist Wireless Dynamics’ iCarte NFC case for Apple iPhones is now available for the iPhone 5... More
Chunghwa launches NFC payments in Taiwan
Taiwan’s largest mobile network operator’s NFC payment service has gone live and four banks will now begin the roll-out of Chunghwa Telecom’s mobile credit card service, which enables Mastercard PayPass credit cards to be issued over-the-air to customers’ NFC-enabled SIMs, starting with Cathay United Bank... More
Chunghwa Telecom to test NFC and QR combo payments platform
“It is an all-in-one digital wallet that lets customers choose which way they want to pay,” the Taiwanese carrier’s Joseph Kuo has told NFC World. “The wallet supports multiple credit and bank cards, loyalty cards, coupons etc, and I think Chunghwa Telecom would like to see a big development in both technologies.” More
Tesco: NFC payments are too complex and offer too few benefits
“NFC was revolutionary 10 years ago but I think it just might have passed its sell-by date”, the retail giant’s Lyndon Lee told attendees at a mobile payments conference in London this week. “We are developing a digital wallet, focusing on marketing and loyalty aspects, but payment may not enter the wallet.” More
Helixion launches NFC payments platform
NFC payments specialist Helixion has launched Lok-MPL, a new mobile payments platform which the company says already has the backing of 12 major European banks... More
Visa backs MasterCard digital wallet surcharge plan
MasterCard’s move to increase the fees charged to “staged” digital wallets like PayPal could see a similar surcharge being applied by Visa... More
MasterCard fights back against new payments players with increased transaction fees for digital wallets that don’t share data
The new fee is to be applied to “staged” digital and mobile wallets that provide a way for transactions to be charged to a customer’s credit card without any details about the purchase being passed on to the payments network. PayPal and Google Wallet as well as a number of other new market entrants are all expected to be affected but “traditional” NFC wallets will not. More
Korean banks launch NFC payments service
Sixteen Korean banks have introduced BankWallet, a prepaid NFC payments service that uses a platform developed by interbank clearing house KFTC. SK Telecom subscribers with an NFC phone will be the first to be able to use the new service and KT customers will be added soon. More
MasterCard unveils MasterPass digital wallet and mobile payments platform
MasterPass covers in-store and online payments, supports both NFC and QR codes and enables “banks, merchants and partners” to offer their own wallets to consumers. More
Samsung confirms Galaxy S III Mini with NFC
Samsung has announced that an NFC version of the Galaxy S III Mini is now available... More
Visa Europe forecasts breakout year for NFC
“The year ahead will see us putting mobile contactless payments into consumers’ hands and introducing digital wallets on a mass scale,” says Peter Ayliffe, chief executive of Visa Europe, as the payments network predicts there will be 40 mobile contactless payments issuers in Europe in 2013. More
The Mobile Wallet Report: PayPal takes its digital wallet overseas, biometrics gain ground and marketers flock to Apple Passbook
In the December edition of Mobile Wallet Outlook, the NFC World team examines the resurgence of interest in using fingerprint verification at the point of sale, the innovative new services being built on top of Apple’s Passbook mobile wallet and the latest consumer adoption surveys. Our first “spot report” takes an in-depth look at PayPal’s digital wallet and in-store payments strategy and asks whether the online payments giant can succeed in crossing the online-offline divide. More
PayPal: “NFC will fail to gain mass adoption”
In a blog post entitled “Looking Ahead to 2013”, PayPal president David Marcus sets out his “thought starters, perhaps predictions, for 2013” — and at the top of the four-point list is “NFC will fail to gain mass adoption”... More
RBS adopts Visa’s V.me
The UK’s RBS Group is currently testing Visa’s V.me digital wallet ahead of a full rollout in 2013... More
Vodafone Australia sets out NFC payment plans
“As early as next year, customers with NFC-enabled smartphones will be able to leave their wallets at home and pay for a morning coffee, an evening out with friends, or groceries, with their handset,” says the carrier’s head of strategy and business development. More
Danish telco payments venture maps out path to NFC
Denmark’s four mobile network operators have formed a joint venture company to introduce mobile payments and a three phase rollout programme that will “eventually” evolve to include support for NFC. More
Visa signs up 50 financial institutions for V.me digital wallet
Cardholders can use V.me at 23 merchants today to make payments online by entering just a username and password. In-store payment capabilities are expected to be added in 2013. More
MasterCard enters the mobile wallet market
The payments network has announced PayPass Wallet Services, a digital wallet platform that will support NFC. Eighteen financial institutions, American Airlines and bookseller Barnes & Noble are among those who have signed up for the service. More