Brixton Pound (B£), a local currency designed to encourage consumers to spend in independent businesses, is to launch an NFC ‘tap and pay’ service in 2015... More
Mobile payments
Line Pay makes debut
Line Pay, the mobile payments service unveiled in October by Tokyo-based instant messaging service Line, has made its global debut with the release of version 4.8.0 of the Line app... More
Google Wallet adds Touch ID
The iOS version of Google Wallet now enables users to use Touch ID fingerprint verification for “secure and quick access” to the mobile wallet... More
Samsung in talks with LoopPay?
Samsung is in talks with mobile payments startup LoopPay with a view to launching a mobile payments system to rival Apple Pay in the US in 2015, “multiple sources” have told Re/code... More
Apple Pay hits 90% of credit cards by volume
Apple Pay has signed up support from “dozens more banks, retail stores and start-ups”, with new additions including SunTrust, Barclaycard, USAA, TD Bank North America, Commerce Bank and Amway Center — the home of the Orlando Magic basketball team — The New York Times reports... More
Suncorp to offer NFC payments
Australia’s Suncorp Bank is to make NFC payments available to customers on select Android devices in 2015, Computerworld Australia reports... More
Barclaycard tests contactless payment gloves
Barclaycard has begun ‘testing’ woollen gloves that can be used to make payments at any of the 300,000 contactless POS terminals in the UK with a touch of a hand... More
Half of Brits interested in mobile payments
Almost one in two (47%) UK consumers are interested in mobile payments, research from Oxygen8 has found, with 11% saying they would like to use their mobile phone only, replacing the use of credit and debit cards altogether... More
Apple store adds PayPal
PayPal is now available as a payment option in Apple’s online retail store for US and UK shoppers having previously only been available as a payment option in Apple’s app and content stores, Re/code reports... More
Join NFC World for a free webinar on NFC security strategies
The next event in NFC World’s free educational webinar series will be held at 15:00 GMT on Tuesday 20 January and will focus on how to select the right security strategy for your NFC service... More
European payments startup funding surges
Nascent payments and transaction processing companies in Europe raised US$417.9m through 26 deals in the nine months to September, more than seven times the amount raised during the same period last year, research from Dow Jones VentureSource reveals... More
Taiwanese banks sign up for NFC
Twenty seven banks have signed up to use an NFC payments hub being introduced by Taiwan Mobile Payment Co (TWMP), a joint venture formed in July 2014 by three Taiwanese banking groups that will work with local carriers to enable the banks to securely provision customers’ card details to their NFC phones... More
Emirates banks move towards mobile wallets
The UAE Banks Federation has announced the completion of the pre-implementation phase of a project to develop a mobile wallet platform that all its 51 member banks will be able to use to offer P2P, mobile payments and loyalty programs to their customers... More
Chick-fil-A rolls out mobile payments
Fast food chain Chick-fil-A has rolled out mobile payments to all of its US restaurants, with the exception of licensed locations, following a pilot that began in June 2014... More
MasterCard to offer interactive payment cards to its issuers around the world
Interactive payment card developer Dynamics has signed a deal with MasterCard that will see the payments network offering the startup’s technology to its issuers around the world. MasterCard has also participated in Dynamics’ US$70m Series C funding round along with Canada’s CIBC and existing investors. More
US online buyers warm to mobile payments
Two fifths (40%) of US online buyers like the idea of making a mobile payment instead of carrying around a wallet with 76% saying they are dissatisfied with the strength of credit card security among retailers, a survey conducted by Bizrate Insights has found... More
One in four US smartphone owners have paid by mobile
Almost a quarter (24%) of US smartphone owners have now used one or more mobile payment apps, research from PunchTab has found... More
MasterCard takes HCE to China
MasterCard’s cloud-based payment service is now available in China, following its initial launch in the US in September 2014... More
One in ten US iPhone 6 owners have now used Apple Pay
Apple Pay is yet to gain widespread adoption among iPhone 6 owners due to poor awareness of which stores accept the NFC payments technology and a lack of understanding of how the service works, a survey conducted by InfoScout has found. Those who have used it, however, compare it highly favourably to using a traditional plastic card. More
Starbucks launches Mobile Order & Pay in Portland
Starbucks’ Mobile Order & Pay service is now live in Portland, Oregon ahead of a planned nationwide roll out across the US that will begin in 2015... More