China could be ready to officially launch the digital yuan as a fully operational central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, according to reports in the Chinese media... More
More than four fifths of consumers (81%) worldwide are ready to use a biometric payment card and authenticate payments with their fingerprint rather than a PIN code, according to a survey commissioned by a biometric technology provider... More
Passengers on New York’s subway and bus services have now tapped their contactless bank card, smartphone or wearable device to pay fares using the Omny open loop fare payment system more than 100m times since its launch in May 2019, double the total of 50m the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reported in March this year... More
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) is calling for amendments to current European Union legislation in order to ensure companies such as Apple provide payment apps with access to a smartphone’s NFC chip to give users a choice of in-store payment methods on their device... More
South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the US is planning to upgrade or replace its SEPTA Key transit card system in order to offer passengers on its bus, trolley and rail networks in the Greater Philadelphia region a wider range of transit ticketing options... More
The planned increase in the UK’s contactless transaction limit from £45 to £100 announced by the UK Treasury in March could come into effect on 5 August, according to a Reddit user... More
Bank-owned Nordic mobile payment providers Vipps in Norway, MobilePay in Denmark and Pivo in Finland are to merge and will create a single digital wallet that consumers can use in all three countries, as well as for cross-border payments... More
The average number of digital payments made for purchases from vending machines in the US grew steadily during 2019, finally exceeded those made with cash in April 2020 and continued to increase over the course of 2020, a new study shows... More
Australia’s Eftpos national debit card system has launched a digital identity exchange solution that enables consumers to share personal information held by trusted digital ID providers in a wide range of use cases, from opening an online account and making online payments to accessing government services or providing proof of age... More
Visa is to launch its Visa Installments payments service in Canada, enabling consumers to choose to pay for purchases made using their credit card in smaller instalments over a specified period of time... More
Customers at Kio Kukhnya fast food outlets in the Russian city of St Petersburg can now pay for their food and beverages at payment terminals equipped with biometric pay-with-a-glance technology... More
Moviegoers at the Nowe Horyzonty Cinema in the Polish city of Wroclaw can now pay for their tickets with their eyes via a biometric payments system that makes use of iris recognition technology... More
Customers of Hong Kong-based virtual bank Mox can now apply for an “all-in-one” numberless payments card that they can choose to use as either a debit or a credit card whenever they make a transaction... More
Some 65.5% of US consumers would pay for a biometric credit card that has a built-in fingerprint reader for authenticating payments, according to a survey of American credit card users... More
Passengers travelling on metro, rail, bus, tram and boat services in the Swedish capital of Stockholm will soon be able to use an EMV white label card issued by the city’s Storstockholm Lokaltrafik (SL) transit authority to make EMV contactless payments for their fares... More
Consumers from Thailand can now make instant cross-border QR code-based payments for goods and services to merchants in Malaysia from their mobile payments app using a service being launched by the Bank of Thailand and Bank Negara Malaysia... More
Customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Agricultural Bank of China can now exchange cash for digital yuan and vice versa at more than 3,000 ATMs across Beijing, China, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency... More
Gamblers at Resorts World Las Vegas in Nevada in the US will soon be able to purchase gambling chips for table games including blackjack, baccarat and roulette, as well as place contactless cashless bets at slot machines, directly from a digital wallet on their mobile phone... More
Customers of BBVA Mexico can now apply for a ‘blank’ biometric credit card that enables them to authenticate payments with their fingerprint... More
EMVCo has issued a new specification bulletin that makes it mandatory for contactless payment terminal suppliers to make use of IQ demodulation techniques in order to receive EMVCo certification... More