Standards body ECMA International has published updates to five NFC standards — ECMA-385, ECMA-386, ECMA-409, ECMA-410 and ECMA-411 — designed “to ensure the security of NFC communication and the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of data transfer between devices”. More
Hong Kong mobile network operator SmarTone has unveiled Kissco, an end-to-end mobile marketing platform incorporating Kiss Pay, a mobile payments service based on NFC and ultrasound technology, a Kiss Dollars loyalty program and Kiss Beacons to allow retailers to send out offers and promotions directly to customers’ smartphones from their stores... More
PARTNER NEWS: Visitors to France’s largest music festival Vieilles Charrues had the opportunity to pay for refreshments during the event using an NFC payment system developed by ticketing solutions provider Weezevent that incorporated NFC wristbands supplied by RapidNFC. More
Ugo, the open NFC mobile wallet developed by Canadian banks President’s Choice Financial and TD Bank Group, has signed up 50,000 users since December... More
LG Electronics has reportedly partnered with Google to launch Android Pay on its next Google Nexus phone, expected to become available in October... More
Switzerland’s financial infrastructure operator SIX and telecommunications provider Swisscom have partnered with a number of banks in the country to establish a nationwide mobile payments service that would enable consumers to make in-store mobile payments at retail locations using either NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or a combination of both, SIX has told NFC World... More
MasterCard has approved a solution that enables payment credentials to be provisioned to wearable devices with a secure element and NFC antenna... More
Smart label systems provider FlexStr8 has unveiled an NFC solution for the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) system that would allow users to print labels and give chemical handlers, emergency first responders and consumers access to important hazardous information by tapping their NFC devices against products... More
Standards body GlobalPlatform has published a new specification that enables an NFC system to discover the application protocols that are supported by a second NFC system... More
Nokia has sold its mapping and location intelligence service Here to a consortium of automotive companies including Audi, BMW and Daimler... More
Commonwealth Bank has added a loyalty feature to its mobile banking app that also offers HCE payments, allowing users to store loyalty cards and redeem them at the checkout with their NFC phone or by scanning the loyalty card barcode... More
Jobseekers in Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK could soon be able to get a head start on new vacancies by tapping their NFC phone against signs, posters and window stickers placed in shopping centres and business locations, thanks to a partnership between NFC and contactless platform provider Tapit and mobile and social recruitment app Workible... More
Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) subsidiary HKT Payment has launched a SIM-based NFC mobile payment service to let customers of its 1010 and Csl mobile service brands pay at more than three million locations worldwide which accept MasterCard PayPass, using funds stored in their Tap & Go mobile wallet account... More
Bitcoin mobile wallet provider OneBit has begun alpha testing its mobile payment service which works via NFC at the point of sale wherever MasterCard is accepted... More
Fifty thousand taxis across Europe will soon be upgraded to accept payments for journeys with either a tap of a passenger’s NFC phone using a mobile app provided by The Payment House or using a contactless card... More
US retailer-owned mobile payments consortium MCX is to test its CurrentC mobile wallet in stores next month, Bloomberg reports, adding: “MCX expects to formally introduce the CurrentC app some time in the third quarter.” MCX unveiled the CurrentC brand in September 2014 and confirmed to NFC World it would launch in a “mid-sized market” in April... More
A quarter of British consumers (25%) expect to make an NFC mobile payment in the next year, research from MasterCard reveals... More
Apple has added an additional 35 banks and credit unions to the list of US financial institutions that support Apple Pay... More
A new joint venture that includes the US-based Mayo Clinic and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute is developing an NFC-based diabetes monitoring system to replace the traditional glucometers that are currently used to monitor patients’ blood sugar levels. The system will also use phones to control insulin delivery, using disposable NFC insulin delivery systems. More
PARTNER NEWS: Transaction technology provider Carta Worldwide has been selected to support the delivery of “tap-and-go” mobile payment services to HP customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Canada... More