Japan airline ANA aims to build digital payments business — Financial Times — “The plan is part of a broader digital push by ANA, which hopes to build on data collected from the 31m users of its airline miles to provide a range of services including real estate, insurance and health to consumers across Japan… ‘We are aiming for ANA’s version of Alibaba’s Alipay,’ Shinya Katanozaka, ANA’s chief executive, said in an interview.”
Google’s Indian payments platform looks for new markets — Financial Times — “Diana Layfield, head of Tez and vice president of Google’s Next Billion Users initiative, told the Financial Times that Google had drawn up a shortlist of three Asian markets and one other emerging market country for Tez’s next launch… Tez initially looked across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa… Countries with “similar characteristics” to India — relatively low credit card penetration and limited access to near field communications systems — were the most attractive to Tez.”
Japan’s big banks plan digital currency launch — Financial Times — “A consortium of banks, led by Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Post Bank, has won support from the country’s central bank and financial regulator to launch the J Coin, an electronic currency to pay for goods and transfer money using smartphones. The J Coin would be convertible into yen on a one-to-one basis, operating via a smartphone app and using QR codes to be scanned in stores.”
Churchgoers in England will begin trialling contactless donations in 40 churches across the country this summer, as the Church of England announces plans to roll out contactless handheld terminals to process card payments for donations as a replacement for loose change... More
NFC World’s Partner Program has been shortlisted in The Drum Online Media Awards’ Best Commercial Innovation category alongside The Financial Times and UK national newspaper group Johnston Press... More
Banks in Singapore are working on a service that would let consumers make payments using their Facebook ID or Twitter username... More
Mobile payments platform PowaTag has been sold to a consortium led by entrepreneur Ben White, administrator Deloitte has confirmed, following news that its parent company Powa Technologies went into administration last month... More
The company behind the PowaTag mobile payments platform has gone into administration, the Financial Times reports... More
Customers of Deutsche Bank are testing technology which verifies their identity by the way they handle and hold their mobile device... More
Alibaba is in advanced talks to buy an approximately US$500 million stake in One97 Communications, the parent company of Indian mobile payment platform Paytm... More
The kickback from card issuers negotiated by Apple for purchases made via its new Apple Pay mobile payments service amounts to 0.15% of the value of each transaction, the Financial Times reports... More
MasterCard, American Express and Visa have all signed deals with Apple for the launch of a mobile payments service that will make use of an NFC chip built into the next iPhone, due to launch on 9 September, according to reports in a number of publications including the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Re/Code. More
Weve, the mobile advertising and payments joint venture formed last year by UK mobile network operators Vodafone, EE and O2, aims to launch a mass market NFC payments service “by next year”, CEO David Sear has told the Financial Times... More
The European Commission is set to green light the creation of a joint venture company to bring NFC to market in the UK, according to the Financial Times... More
The European Commission has prolonged the deadline for a decision on whether to give the go ahead to the UK carrier-led ‘Project Oscar’ NFC joint venture, Bloomberg reports... More
Everything Everywhere, Vodafone and O2 will be submitting their plans for a UK-based NFC joint venture to regulators in Brussels next week, the Financial Times reports... More
Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu is to introduce a wide range of smartphones and tablets with both NFC and biometric security capabilities, according to a Financial Times report... More
Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, believes that a third of POS terminals in retail stores and restaurants will be upgraded to allow NFC payments within the next year, the Financial Times reports — and credit card companies will foot the bill... More
The CEO of billboard advertising giant Clear Channel International has said the introduction of near field communication technology to billboard advertising will be “transformative” for the industry... More
Feed for stories about Financial Times.
