Users of the Bibus public transport network in the Brest Métropole area of France can now use their contactless payment cards to buy tickets on buses, trams and cable cars, transfer from one mode of transport to another at no additional cost, and pay for as many as six passengers with a single card... More
Payments
Google Pay rolls out tokenized NFC card payments in India
Google Pay users in India can now make tokenized NFC-based credit and debit card payments at contactless POS terminals, starting with customers of Axis Bank and SBI “with Kotak and more banks expected to follow suit very soon”... More
Marshall University transitions to mobile-only NFC ID cards for staff and students
Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, USA, has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by switching to a mobile-only ID system, removing the need to issue physical cards or for students to visit the campus ID office in person to register for a card and have their photograph taken... More
Survey: Four in ten US and UK consumers ready to use QR codes for payments
The popularity of QR codes has “skyrocketed” in the USA and UK this year, with 53% of consumers saying they want to see QR codes used more broadly in future and 43% that they plan to use a QR code as a payment method soon, a new survey has revealed... More
Google Pay streamlines user interface
Google Pay users can now access and add their payment, loyalty and gift cards, passes and transit tickets to the app via a new streamlined user interface that simplifies navigation... More
Juniper forecasts ‘permanent shift’ to contactless ticketing
Mobile ticketing transaction volumes, including contactless, in-app and mobile messaging ticket purchases, will increase from 6.8bn transactions in 2020 to 16.9bn in 2022, heralding a permanent shift towards contactless ticketing, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
UK charities leverage open banking to cut donation transaction costs
UK residents can now make charity donations using an open banking payments service that allows them to transfer money directly from their bank account to a charity’s bank account by scanning a QR code with their mobile phone, reducing the recipient’s processing costs and automatically enabling Gift Aid tax benefits on each donation... More
EU to report on its investigation into Apple Pay next week?
The European Union is to publish a report next week that will provide further information on the results of its investigation into Apple Pay and could lead to new legislation forcing Apple to provide more open access to the NFC chip in its devices, according to “documents obtained by Bloomberg”... More
Klip digital wallet goes live in UAE
Customers of First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq Bank and the National Bank of Fujairah in the UAE can now make cashless digital payments using Klip, the digital wallet that forms part of the country’s new national digital cash replacement platform... More
MTA completes Omny rollout in Manhattan
Transit passengers in New York can now pay for their tickets with their contactless card or mobile wallet at every subway station and on all buses in Manhattan using the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Omny contactless fare payment system... More
Titan and SBI pick Tappy wearable payments technology for India’s first contactless payment watches
PARTNER NEWS: Watch brand Titan has partnered with State Bank of India (SBI) for the launch of a range of watches that makes use of Canada-based Tappy Tech’s wearable payments technology to let consumers make contactless transactions at POS terminals across India... More
Malaysian bank rolls out contactless card acceptance on standard NFC phones
Merchants in Malaysia can now use a tap-to-phone payment acceptance service from Hong Leong Bank (HLB) to accept contactless card payments on a standard NFC Android mobile device... More
Jersey promotes consumer spending at local businesses with prepaid stimulus card
Residents of the island of Jersey can now make contactless payments to local businesses using a prepaid card that is being sent to all eligible citizens as part of a fiscal stimulus package designed to alleviate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic... More
Merchants in Spain and Hungary pilot cardless payments service that combines face and palm biometrics
Customers at a coffee shop in Budapest, Hungary, and a number of small city-centre retailers in Guadalajara, Spain, are piloting a biometric payment service which allows them to make payments at the point of sale using their face and palm without needing a card, smartphone or other mobile device... More
European Commission opens preliminary investigation into Visa’s staged digital wallet rules
The European Commission has opened a preliminary investigation into Visa’s rules regarding staged digital wallets, the payments network has revealed in a note added to its latest quarterly filing... More
Bermuda trials digital stimulus token to distribute financial aid to citizens’ mobile phones
Residents and retailers in Bermuda are taking part in a pilot to test the viability of a “digital stimulus token”, which the Bermudan Government hopes to use to distribute financial aid more efficiently and to facilitate the purchase of food and other essential items during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic... More
Austin lets drivers pay for parking through Google Maps
Motorists in Austin, Texas, in the US, can now use Google Pay to make payments for parking directly from Google Maps, removing the need for them to use a physical parking meter or ticketing machine or download a parking payment app... More
Metrolinx adds mobile ticketing option for occasional public transport users in the Greater Toronto area
Visitors to Canada’s Greater Toronto area and other occasional users of Metrolinx’s Durham Region Transit (DRT) and Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) buses can now purchase, store and activate tickets on their smartphone without having to use cash or buy a Presto transit card as part of a project to give passengers more contactless and mobile payment options across the agency’s transit networks... More
NPCI creates new company to take India’s UPI and RuPay global
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced the launch of subsidiary firm NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) with the aim of exporting its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) real-time mobile payments service and RuPay domestic payment card scheme to global markets... More
Google Pay tests NFC card payments in India
Google Pay has begun testing tokenized NFC-based credit and debit card payments in India, enabling users of supported cards to add them to their payment options for NFC, QR and online payments... More