Chinese tourists will soon be able to make payments at 210,000 store locations in Germany serviced by payment provider Concardis using Ant Financial’s Alipay mobile payment platform. The move marks the service’s launch into Europe after the company unveiled its expansion plans at Money20/20 Europe in April 2016. More
Infrastructure
Gemalto explores seven myths about mobile NFC
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto has published a list of the seven most common myths about mobile NFC which explores the reasons why some consumers may not be prepared to use the technology on their mobile device... More
US and UK consumers warm to biometric authentication
More than half of US and UK consumers (52%) prefer to log in to online accounts using “modern authentication methods”, research from Gigya reveals, including 29% who favour two-factor authentication and 20% who prefer biometric authentication. More
Polish bank gets HCE mobile payments through First Data and Bell ID
PARTNER NEWS: Customers of Eurobank Poland can now make host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments as a result of a collaboration between First Data Poland and tokenization and mobile payment specialist Bell ID which offers cloud-based mobile payments as a service to Polish banks... More
US Smart City Challenge adds NXP’s RFID tagging solutions
PARTNER NEWS: The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has expanded its Smart City Challenge initiative to include NXP’s RFID tagging solutions and smart card ICs... More
The State Bank of Vietnam urges transition to EMV
The State Bank of Vietnam has instructed banks to “quickly carry out a plan to convert all magnetic cards into chip cards to prevent fraud”, according to Vietnam News... More
Micromax to launch NFC mobile payments with TranServ and Visa
Handset maker Micromax will soon begin offering its customers in India an NFC mobile payment service through a collaboration with Visa and payment solutions provider TranServ. More
NXP and HID Global to enable wearable devices to unlock doors
PARTNER NEWS: NXP has teamed up with HID Global to work on enabling consumers to open electronic locks at commercial buildings, hotels and workplaces with a tap of an NFC wearable device. More
Nets to launch HCE mobile payments in Denmark
Nordic payments service provider Nets is to launch a mobile payment service in Denmark in autumn 2016 that will use host card emulation (HCE) technology from Japanese card issuer JCB, the two companies have announced. More
Canada sees rise in contactless spending
The number of contactless transactions made in Canada increased 14.71% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to Q1 2015, with the total amount spent rising by 108.84%, research by Moneris reveals... More
Singapore carriers to use Gemalto NFC SIMs for transit ticketing rollout
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto is supplying Singapore’s mobile network operators with UpTeq Multi-Tenant NFC SIMs for the rollout of a service enabling commuters to use a mobile version of their EZ-Link transit card to pay for public transportation and for purchases at some 30,000 local retail outlets... More
Swiss banks and retailers to launch joint mobile payments solution
The five largest banks in Switzerland are in talks with financial infrastructure operator SIX and retail giants Coop and Migros over the launch of a common solution for mobile payments “across all channels” that can be “rapidly spread” across the country. More
Singapore commuters get NFC payments
Customers of mobile network operators M1, Singtel and StarHub can now pay for journeys on public transport services in Singapore with a tap of their NFC device as a result of a partnership between the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and transport card issuer EZ-Link. More
NFC Forum adds cloud-based connectivity to P2P spec
The NFC Forum has added the ability to use the cloud to establish connections between two NFC devices in a new candidate version of Connection Handover, the technical specification that covers the way in which NFC devices can establish a connection using alternative carriers, such as Bluetooth or WiFi... More
More than 100m people will make an NFC mobile payment in 2016
More than 100m people around the world will use an NFC handset to make a purchase this year, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, and the value of transactions conducted via NFC handsets will grow from US$30bn in 2016 to US$240bn in 2021. More
Swiss P2P payments service moves in-store with QR codes
Shoppers in Switzerland can now make in-store mobile payments using Paymit, the P2P transfer service established by the country’s financial infrastructure operator SIX and telecommunications provider Swisscom... More
Nearly 1bn to use NFC payments by 2019
A total of 1.09bn people will be making mobile proximity payments globally by 2019, of which 939.10m will be made through NFC, Ovum’s new m-payments forecast reveals. The total transaction value of mobile proximity payments will grow from US$4.77bn to $141.21bn over the same time period. More
NXP backs two new IoT development platforms
PARTNER NEWS: NXP has put its support behind two new reference platforms that will enable “innovation and rapid development” for smart wearables. The platforms target a range of internet of things (IoT) applications with open-source hardware and software, form-factor flexibility and expandable solutions for designers to adapt to changing market needs. More
Gemalto and Prosa bring HCE payments to Mexico
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto and payment processor Prosa have partnered to bring host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments to Mexico... More
Vodafone to roll out NFC mobile ticketing in Spanish cities
Vodafone Spain is to begin rolling out NFC mobile ticketing through its Vodafone Wallet in cities across Spain... More