Connecting people: A strategic vision for rail — Department for Transport — “Our aim for 2018 is that, by the end of the year, both ITSO and barcode tickets will be accepted for travel on almost all of the network… We also expect much of the industry to offer smart cards that can be held in digital ‘wallets’ on mobile phones… We expect in the medium-term wider use of mobile phone-based ticketing, and in the longer-term to explore options that don’t require a physical check of tickets.”
Mobile wallet
Australia’s Bendigo Bank adds Apple Pay
Bendigo Bank announces Apple Pay support in Australia — MacRumours — “Account holders in Australia can now use Apple Pay with their Bendigo Blue Bank cards… Bendigo and Adelaide Bank was one of several banks that lost a fight in March to gain access to the NFC chip used in iPhones so they could offer their own integrated digital wallets to customers.”
UK government expands open banking project to credit cards, e-wallets and prepaid cards
UK’s Open Banking project expanded — Open Banking — “The OBIE [Open Banking Implementation Entity] has now been asked by the CMA9 and Her Majesty’s Treasury to create open banking standards for all payment account types covered by the European Union’s second Payments Services Directive (PSD2). This means customers using credit cards, e-wallets and prepaid cards will also be able to take advantage of open banking services.”
Microsoft rebrands wallet as Microsoft Pay
Microsoft Wallet is now Microsoft Pay: New app appears in Store — On MSFT — “Microsoft Wallet has changed its name to Microsoft Pay… Microsoft Pay was included in the Windows 10 Creators Update, but only now Microsoft Wallet has updated to reflect the name change. Microsoft Pay is developed for use with Windows 10 and Windows 10 on Arm devices.”
Chinese consumers made 1.48bn Alipay purchases on Singles Day
Spending climbs by 39% on this year’s Singles Day — China Daily — “Bargain hunters splurged by spending a record 168.2bn yuan (US$25.3bn) during this year’s Singles Day… Nine out of 10 people used mobile wallet apps for payment, said Alibaba, with its Alipay app having handled 1.48bn transactions in 24 hours and processed them at a peak rate of 256,000 transactions per second.”
Paytm to invest US$1bn in building out its payments business
Paytm plans $1 billion top-up to cash in on note ban success — Times of India — “Sharma said they were looking at a three-pronged strategy to double the number of users in the coming year by converting Paytm users to its payments bank, tap into non-wallet users through UPI and sell financial products from next year. ‘Long ago, we realised that standalone payments as a business is an orphan and thus we are building a bouquet of products,’ Sharma said.”
Taxi hailing app Grab targets Asian mobile payment market
Grab starts mobile wallet service at hawker stalls in Singapore — Bloomberg — “Grab will enable its four million users in the city-state to scan a quick response, or QR, code to pay for local dishes such as chicken rice and prawn noodles at hawker stands around the country. Grab plans to increase the number of small merchants accepting GrabPay from 25 to 1,000 by the end of December… The five-year-old startup plans to roll out mobile wallet services across the region next year, according to co-founder Tan Hooi Ling.”
Indian mobile wallet giant Paytm plans expansion to US, Japan and Europe
India’s top payment app has eyes on US market — Wall Street Journal — “India’s largest mobile payment app — backed by the likes of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp — has its eye on the US, its founder said. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s D.Live Singapore event, Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma said his aim is to expand into developed markets, also including Japan and Europe.”
NXP cuts card transaction times, adds fingerprints to cards
PARTNER NEWS: NXP is to unveil a new fingerprint-on-card solution at Money20/20 that combines a dual interface card with an integrated fingerprint sensor... More
Singapore banks begin rollout of NetsPay NFC and QR mobile wallet
NetsPay mobile wallet available for download — The Straits Times — “Nets users can now leave their physical ATM cards at home. They can also ditch multiple mobile apps that provide similar payment functions. The NetsPay mobile wallet — which can digitise the credit, debit and ATM cards of six banks here — is currently available for download…. The app lets users pay through their digital Nets cards with just a tap of their mobile phone, or by scanning a QR code at merchants that accept the service — without encumbering users with the need to download multiple mobile apps.”
Wells Fargo adds NFC cash withdrawals at 5,000 ATMs
More than 5,000 Wells Fargo ATMs launch NFC-enabled mobile wallet capability — Wells Fargo — “A customer can initiate an ATM transaction by signing into leading mobile wallet features, such as Wells Fargo Wallet for Android, Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay, found on mobile phones. They simply hold their phone or wearable device with mobile payment functionality near an NFC-enabled ATM terminal… The customer will then input their Wells Fargo Debit or EasyPay card personal identification number (PIN) and complete their transaction.”
Reserve Bank of India to issue guidelines for interoperable mobile wallets
Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies — Reserve Bank of India — “In line with the Vision for Payment and Settlement Systems in the country, the revised framework will pave the way for bringing interoperability into usage of PPIs [Prepaid Payment Instruments]. Interoperability amongst KYC-compliant PPIs shall be implemented within six months of the date of issuance of the revised Master Directions, which will be issued within a week, ie by October 11, 2017.”
Supermarket giant Carrefour launches mobile wallet in China
Carrefour unveils digital wallet, teams up with China UnionPay to develop mobile payment ecosystem — Yicai Global — “Europe’s largest retailer, France-based Carrefour SA, has introduced its own mobile wallet dubbed CarrefourPay and joined hands with China UnionPay, a bankcard provider, to build a mobile payment ecosphere… The cross-industry partnership will see both firms working together in such areas as general payment platforms, membership systems, secure payments, big data analysis and smart retail.”
Ant Financial signs mobile wallet joint venture deal in Hong Kong
CK Hutchison and Ant Financial form strategic partnership to provide digital financial inclusive services in Hong Kong — CK Hutchison — “The two companies will form a joint venture to offer a consumer-oriented digital wallet under the ‘AlipayHK’ brand… CK Hutchison Group and its affiliated companies’ consumer networks have over 124m retail loyalty members and over 123m telecom and 35m utility customers… The joint venture is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, subject to regulatory approval.”
Carrier Blockchain Study Group demos cross-carrier blockchain payment platform
SoftBank, Sprint, Far EasTone and TBCASoft launch Blockchain consortium for telecom carriers — SoftBank — “SoftBank, Sprint and TBCASoft succeeded in demonstrating cross-carrier top-ups, mobile wallet roaming, international remittances and IoT payment on a cross-carrier payment platform system using TBCASoft’s blockchain technology.”
Google to enter mobile payments market in India
Google to launch payment app ‘Tez’ in India — The Ken — “Google is expected to partner ‘several large private banks in India’ for its payment product, Tez. Besides its own UPI-based service, Google is expected to integrate third-party payment wallets such as Paytm and MobiKwik among others on its platform.”
Ride-hailing app Grab launches e-payment and fund transfer system
Ride-hailing app Grab launches e-payment and fund transfer system — The Straits Times — “Users will be able to transfer GrabPay credits between themselves via its in-app mobile wallet… Grab also aims to work with more than 1,000 merchants in the retail, entertainment and food and beverage industries to accept mobile payments through GrabPay in the fourth quarter of 2017.”
From the high street to the handset: How banks can stay connected to consumers in the smartphone era
While banks may no longer need a presence on every high street to stay connected with their customers, they do need to remain very visible, especially on the smart device, to avoid being relegated to the place of a utility, payments technology provider Dejamobile’s Lorcan Burke tells NFC World readers in an in-depth article that explores the changing role of banks in the smartphone era... More
Mobile payment usage ‘remains low’, US debit card study finds
“Combined, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay account for only about one quarter of 1% of US debit transactions,” the annual Debit Issuer Study from debit and ATM network Pulse has found, while the country’s move to EMV chip cards has cut debit card fraud loss rates but “fraud continues to challenge issuers.”... More
Rambus lays out the benefits of retailer-led digital wallets
An eight-page white paper that lays out how merchants can reduce costs and increase margins, enhance the in-store experience, improve payment security and mitigate risk by deploying their own digital wallets is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More