One in ten consumers in the Nordic countries now prefer to make mobile payments at the point of sale, double the number who prefer to use cash (5%), making mobile payments the second most popular payment method in the region for the first time, according to figures from regional payments processor Nets... More
NFC Mobile Payments
New York MTA adds support for discounted tickets to Omny payments platform
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has added support for reduced fares to its Omny open loop contactless payments service, enabling eligible senior citizens and people with disabilities to receive a discount whenever they tap to pay for their subway or bus journey using their debit or credit card, smartphone or wearable device... More
New Zealand sets out plans for national open loop contactless transit payments system
The New Zealand government and the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency have confirmed plans to launch a national account-based open loop payments system that will enable public transport users to make contactless fare payments with a new national transit card or their own physical or digital credit or debit card... More
Queensland rolls out open loop contactless ticketing to three additional rail lines
Passengers travelling on the Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula and Gold Coast railway lines in south east Queensland can now make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card, mobile phone or smartwatch using the Australian state’s open loop ticketing system... More
Apple Pay begins to roll out in Kuwait
Apple Pay has gone live in a number of shopping malls in Kuwait prior to a full rollout in the country “soon”, according to media reports... More
National Australia Bank lets merchants accept contactless payments on Android NFC smartphones
Merchants in Australia can now accept contactless payments directly on their Android NFC smartphone or tablet using National Australia Bank’s Easy Tap software point of sale (sPOS) solution... More
Samsung Wallet to expand to 13 more countries
Samsung Wallet is to roll out in Bahrain, Denmark, Finland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, enabling users to store their digital payment, loyalty, membership and identity cards, digital keys, boarding passes and other credentials on their compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone... More
Curve partners with Fidesmo to roll out contactless wearable payments across Europe
Curve digital wallet users across Europe can now add multiple payment cards to a range of wearable NFC devices including rings, bracelets, watches and pens and use them to make contactless payments via the Fidesmo Pay wearable payments platform... More
Juniper forecasts 121bn virtual card transactions by 2027
The integration of virtual cards into digital wallet services like Apple Pay and Google Pay will drive a 340% increase in virtual card transactions, from 28bn in 2022 to 121bn by 2027, Juniper Research predicts... More
Visa reports rapid growth in contactless fare payments worldwide
Visa has processed more than 1bn contactless fare payments on transit systems around the world over a period of 10 months, signalling “rapid growth” in the uptake of digital payment options, the card network reports... More
Nearly half of UK consumers now make mobile payments every week
More than four in ten UK consumers now make in-person and ecommerce purchases from their mobile device on a weekly basis (43%), making mobile payments “the predominant form of payment” in the country with mobile commerce transaction values predicted to reach £100m (US$112m) by 2024, according to research published by payment services provider Rapyd... More
Contactless payments set to hit US$10tn globally by 2027
Global contactless transaction values will reach US$10tn by 2027, up from US$4.6tn in 2022, with contactless mobile and wearable payments expected to grow by 221% and contactless card payments by 119% over the same period, according to a Juniper Research forecast... More
Hema to pilot software-only POS terminals in Dutch department stores
Dutch retail chain Hema is to trial a software-only point-of-sale (sPOS) solution that enables staff to accept contactless payments on any Android smartphone or tablet without needing any additional hardware or accessories... More
China lets consumers link their bank account to their central bank digital currency app for contactless payments
Chinese consumers in the 23 cities and regions piloting the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) can now automatically transfer funds to their digital yuan wallet app whenever their balance runs low, removing the need to manually top up the balance in their e-yuan app... More
EMVCo to keynote Contactless World Congress
EMVCo’s director of engagement and operations and the chair of the EMVCo Board of Managers will be making a virtual keynote presentation on the future of contactless payments at Contactless World Congress on 7 September at 3pm BST/10am EDT... More
Three quarters of iPhone users in the US have now enabled Apple Pay
Three in four iPhone users in the USA have now activated Apple Pay (75%), a rise of 25 percentage points from 50% in 2020, according to research by Loup Ventures... More
Dutch rail network to trial contactless open loop fare payments
Rail operator NS in the Netherlands is to pilot a contactless open loop fare payment system that will enable passengers to pay for their train fares by tapping their physical debit or credit card or their digital debit card stored on a smartphone or smartwatch at the beginning and the end of their journey... More
Metrolinx expands open loop contactless ticketing in Greater Toronto Area
Passengers travelling on public transport services operated by GO Transit, Brampton Transit, MiWay and Oakville Transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area of Ontario in Canada can now make contactless fare payments with a tap of their physical or digital credit card, without needing to buy a Presto transit card or e-ticket... More
Nearly a third of all payments in the UK are now contactless
Nearly one in three of all payments in the UK were made using contactless cards or with a smartphone or smart watch in 2021 (32%), a rise of 36% compared with transaction volumes in 2020, according to figures from UK Finance... More
Apple Pay goes live in Qatar
Apple Pay has launched in Qatar with support for American Express cards and Mastercard and Visa cards issued by seven major banks... More