US supermarket chain Giant Eagle has installed checkout-free technology at a GetGo Café+Market store in the Greater Pittsburgh area, enabling customers to simply walk into the store, select the items they wish to purchase and checkout via their mobile phone... More
Payments
GlobalPlatform releases secure customer authentication specification
GlobalPlatform has released a new specification designed to simplify the integration of strong customer authentication (SCA) for payments, banking, transport and identity applications... More
Amazon lets drivers use Alexa to pay at the pump with their voice
Drivers can now use Alexa to pay for their fuel using just a voice command at any of more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil stations across the US... More
Washington Metro lets passengers add SmarTrip transit cards to Apple Wallet
Public transport users in Washington, DC, in the US can now add their SmarTrip card to their iPhone or Apple Watch, “giving transit customers a safer, faster, more convenient way to pay”... More
Octopus to launch new transit card that works in mainland China?
Users of Octopus transit cards in Hong Kong could soon be able to pay for public transport fares in mainland China, with the ability to make payments for purchases at stores across the country to follow, the company’s outgoing CEO has told the South China Morning Post... More
ABI forecasts $7.2bn market for wearable payment devices
The market for payment-enabled wearable devices will reach US$7.2bn in 2024, “driven by a surge in contactless payment adoption, as a result of growing usage of contactless cards and near field communication (NFC)-enabled mobile payments,” ABI Research predicts.... More
The Lowry Hotel pilots NFC payments on graphene till receipts
The Lowry Hotel in Manchester, UK, is piloting a graphene-based contactless payment system that enables restaurant customers to pay their bill by tapping their smartphone on a till receipt imprinted with an electronic antenna... More
BIS reports on central bank digital currency initiatives around the world
Countries with digitised and innovative economies are more likely to be developing central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects while those with a larger informal economy are tending to focus on creating retail CBDCs, a working paper published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reports... More
Brazil sets up central bank digital currency group
The Banco Central do Brasil has formed a study group to evaluate the benefits and challenges of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country... More
Reliance Jio pilots NFC and QR payments in India
Indian telecommunications giant Reliance Jio has begun piloting Jio Pay, a new UPI-enabled payments service which includes support for both NFC and QR mobile payments... More
Singtel adds rewards to Dash mobile wallet
Users of Singapore mobile network operator Singtel’s Dash mobile wallet can now earn reward points for each in-store and online payment and every overseas remittance they make using the service... More
Azerbaijan doubles contactless transactions limit
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan has raised the limit for all contactless card transactions and contactless ATM withdrawals in the country from 50 manats (US$29.40) to 100 manats (US$58.80)... More
UMB Bank lets cardholders pay with points
UMB Bank customers in the US can now opt to use their rewards points balance to pay for any in-store purchases they make with their UMB Visa debit or credit card... More
Indian banks to add transit ticketing to mobile banking apps
Bank customers in India will soon be able to book, pay for and receive railway e-tickets for use on their mobile device through their mobile banking app... More
MTA reports continued rise in Omny contactless payments usage on New York subway
The number of passengers using the Omny contactless payment service to pay for journeys on the New York City subway has risen by 168% since August 2019 and by 50% since May this year, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reports... More
PrivatBank begins rollout of face recognition POS terminals in Ukraine
Ukraine’s PrivatBank has begun to roll out biometric POS terminals for its facial recognition payments service FacePay24... More
One in three consumers favour a further increase in UK contactless transaction limit
One in three UK consumers (32%) are in favour of further raising the country’s current contactless spending limit from £45 (US$59), according to a YouGov survey... More
Circle K to install autonomous checkout technology at US convenience store
Convenience store giant Circle K is to add support for cashierless shopping at one of its Phoenix, Arizona, outlets, “with other stores to follow”... More
Kroger pilots NFC payments in QFC grocery stores
Kroger, the US supermarket chain that has previously held out against the introduction of NFC payments, has begun piloting NFC-based contactless payments in 61 of its QFC grocery stores in Oregon and Washington states... More
CVS Pharmacy to accept PayPal QR payments in 8,000 US stores
PayPal has signed a deal with CVS Pharmacy to roll out its new QR code-based payments technology across more than 8,000 of the US retailer’s stores nationwide... More