An additional 110m contactless payment cards will be issued in 2020 compared with pre-Covid-19 forecast expectations, ABI Research predicts, bringing the total in circulation to more than 2bn... More
Mobile payments
Three in ten US consumers to use contactless and mobile payments post-pandemic
A new survey has found that 45% of US consumers are now using “a mobile wallet of some type”, 16% are using paper-based currency less than before the pandemic and 31% say will use contactless or mobile wallet payments instead of cash and cheques in the aftermath of Covid-19... More
Australia records sharp increase in NFC mobile payments adoption
A total of 10.8% of Australians are now using Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, up from 7.1% a year ago, a new report from market researchers Roy Morgan has found... More
NNG reports on the user experience required to successfully deliver face-based payments in stores
Face-based payments offer the potential to improve customer convenience and increase checkout speeds in stores but require consumer education to be built into the user experience to alleviate security concerns, an in-depth study of services currently on offer in China has found... More
Samsung Pay unveils plan to launch its own debit card
Samsung has announced plans to introduce “a new Samsung Pay experience” that combines “an innovative debit card backed by a cash management account”... More
Costa Rica to introduce national NFC and QR transit ticketing system
Costa Rica has announced plans to implement a national, multimodal transit ticketing infrastructure that includes support for both QR mobile payments and EMV contactless cards and devices... More
HID Global adds employee IDs to NFC wearables
PARTNER NEWS: HID Global has announced that employee ID card issuers can now use its Seos digital credential technology to let staff use smart watches, watchbands, rings and other devices to gain access to buildings, log in to PCs and cloud applications, make payments at vending machines, and more... More
Blackhawk Network lets UK consumers make digital gift card payments in stores
PARTNER NEWS: Blackhawk Network subsidiary One4all is using Dejamobile’s ReadyToTap Gifts & Rewards solution to make it possible for UK consumers and businesses to send a digital gift card directly to a recipient’s mobile phone — and for the recipient to then use it to make payments online and at contactless terminals in stores... More
Belgian consumers double their use of contactless payments
Coronavirus has a major impact on our payment behaviour — Febelfin (translation) — “Since the limits increased, more than one in four card payments are handled contactlessly. 29% of card payments were made via contactless in April. This represents a doubling compared to February of this year (16%).”
Visa to provide merchants with ‘Tap to pay preferred’ decals to promote contactless payments in stores
Visa has unveiled a series of ‘tap to pay preferred’, ‘we are now cashless’, ‘how to pay contactless’ and ‘tap to pay encouraged’ decals, POS terminal stickers and toppers, table tents and mats to promote the use of contactless payments in stores... More
Google Pay adds food ordering and payments in Singapore
You can now search for Singapore food places with delivery, pick-up options on Google Pay — Channel News Asia — “The new free feature allows users to look through menus, select items then order and pay through the platform, after which they can self-collect or get the food delivered.”
Facebook adds grocery ordering to WhatsApp in India
Facebook-backed Reliance Jio pilots basic grocery ordering service on WhatsApp in India — The Next Web — “Less than a week ago, Facebook announced it was investing $5.7bn into India’s largest mobile carrier, Reliance Jio. We now have an idea of how the two giants plan to collaborate: The latter’s ecommerce arm, JioMart, is now testing a system for WhatsApp users to order goods via the messaging service.”
Safaricom partners with Visa for M-Pesa digital payments
Safaricom and Visa join forces in seeking to expand access to digital payments for M-Pesa consumers and merchants — Safaricom — “The partnership will cover over 24 million M-Pesa customers, more than 173,000 Lipa Na M-Pesa merchants from Safaricom and more than 61m merchant locations throughout Visa’s global network, and over 3.4bn Visa cards in more than 200 countries and territories, subject to regulatory approval.”
MBTA redesigns its new ticketing system ‘to adapt to future needs’
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is to spend an additional US$212.1m on its new transit ticketing infrastructure, to enable support for a range of new options including the ability to integrate ferry and local rail services and to charge riders different fares depending on the time of day they travel... More
JCB rolls out contactless payments acceptance on standard Android devices
JCB has launched Tap on Mobile, a contactless payments acceptance solution that uses off-the-shelf Android NFC devices to enable its acquirers to offer “a cost-effective payment solution to their merchants”... More
Westpac goes live with Apple Pay
Westpac switches on Apple Pay for customers — Westpac — “Apple Pay is now available for Westpac customers with an eligible Mastercard debit or credit card, or eftpos Handycard… Debit card holders can now choose the payment option linked to their card when they pay with Apple Pay, including ‘Mastercard Debit’, ‘eftpos CHQ’ and ‘eftpos SAV’.”
Mobile payment overtakes contactless cards for young Irish consumers
Impact of Covid-19 on spending behaviour revealed as more Irish consumers using contactless and digital wallets — AIB — “Digital wallet (Apple Pay and Google Pay) spend now accounts for 37% of all in-store transactions by those who are under 25… Contactless using a debit card is the most popular choice of in-store payment method among all age cohorts, except those under 25 where it accounts for 28% of spend.”
Google to add support for Bluetooth mobile payments?
Leaked screenshots of a new Google Pay debit card, to be issued by banks partnering with the search engine giant for its planned move into the US banking market, include mention of an option to use a digital version of the card “for Bluetooth mobile payments”... More
France to raise contactless transaction limit to €50
The contactless transaction limit in France will be increased from €30 to €50 from 11 May, the date set by the French government for the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown to begin to be lifted... More
New Zealand raises contactless limit by 150%
New Zealand is to progressively roll out a temporary increase in the country’s contactless transaction limit “over the coming days and weeks” — but customers of two banks will miss out “due to technology constraints” unless they order a new card or make use of mobile payments... More