Poste Italiane adds QR code payments to Postepay app
Italy’s national postal service provider has added QR code-based payments to its mobile payments app, to support the country’s transition from cash to digital payments... More
Financial Times
Japanese airline ANA to enter mobile payments market
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 to take its Tez mobile wallet app global
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.”
Japanese banks get go ahead for digital currency launch
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.”
English churches to trial contactless donations this summer ahead of wider roll out
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 shortlisted for commercial innovation award
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
Singapore banks to allow transfers with social media IDs
Banks in Singapore are working on a service that would let consumers make payments using their Facebook ID or Twitter username... More
PowaTag sold to investors
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
Powa goes into administration
The company behind the PowaTag mobile payments platform has gone into administration, the Financial Times reports... More
Deutsche Bank trials multi-factor authentication
Customers of Deutsche Bank are testing technology which verifies their identity by the way they handle and hold their mobile device... More
Alibaba to buy Paytm?
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
Apple Pay to get 0.15% transaction fee
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
Apple iPhone NFC payments rumours reach fever pitch
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 to launch NFC payments in the UK in 2014
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
EU set to approve Project Oscar UK NFC venture
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
EC extends Oscar deadline
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
UK NFC JV heads to Brussels
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
Fujitsu to launch phones and tablets featuring NFC and biometric security
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
Schmidt: One-third of merchants could get NFC POS terminals ‘in the next year’
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
Clear Channel CEO says NFC will ‘transform’ billboard advertising
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
