Samsung has announced the availability of a digital-first Samsung Pay Card designed to give customers in the UK “a better banking experience through their Samsung smartphone and smartwatch, whilst gaining the rewards they want along the way”... More
Payments
China to expand central bank digital currency pilot to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced that pilot testing of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) developed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is to be expanded to cover the country’s major commercial regions and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau... More
Coffee shop rolls out face-based payments in Romania
Tucano Coffee has installed a payments system that enables customers to make contact-free payments using face biometrics at its Afi Park coffee shop in Bucharest, Romania... More
Manchester bar to introduce finger vein biometrics for payments, age verification and Covid-19 contact tracing
The Alchemist, a busy cocktail bar and restaurant in the UK city of Manchester, is to roll out a new service that uses finger vein biometrics to provide a combined payments, age verification and permission-based contact tracing service that removes the need for customers to carry a physical ID card... More
Three in four US consumers now prefer using contactless cards
A survey of 1,000 US consumers who are familiar with contactless payment cards has found that 75% now prefer using contactless cards as their primary payment method... More
Citadele adds support for contactless payments rings
Baltic banking group Citadele is offering customers in Latvia the option of ordering a payments ring that they will be able to use to make payments at any merchant equipped to accept contactless payments... More
Visa reports on contactless transit ticketing adoption
“Globally, Visa now has more than 500 active transit projects and has helped a number of cities launch tap to pay solutions over the course of the pandemic,” the payments network has revealed... More
Mercedes to secure in-car payments with biometrics
The new Mercedes S-Class will come with fingerprint, voice and optional face biometrics integrated into its infotainment system, enabling “verification of digital payment processes from the vehicle”, the luxury car maker has announced... More
LA Metro to let passengers add their TAP transit card to Apple Pay ‘this year’
Public transport users in Los Angeles will be able to add their TAP transit card to their iPhone or Apple Watch “this year”, LA Metro has announced... More
Visa moves into the instalment payments market
Visa is piloting an instalment payments service in Russia and is moving towards a commercial launch in the US, the payments network has announced... More
Turin rolls out contactless payments on bus and subway services
Travellers using the subway and selected bus services in the Italian city of Turin can now pay for their rides by tapping on and off public transportation using a Visa or Mastercard contactless card or their NFC phone... More
Carrefour integrates its loyalty card with Apple Pay
Supermarket giant Carrefour has become the first retailer in Europe to integrate its customer loyalty programme with Apple Pay, enabling shoppers both to pay for their purchases and collect loyalty points with a single tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch... More
Afterpay lets US consumers pay by instalments with their NFC mobile phone
Australia-based buy now, pay later specialist Afterpay is launching a service that lets US consumers make NFC payments in stores — and then pay for their purchases in four equal instalments... More
Card networks begin global Click to Pay rollout
American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa have announced that “they are each beginning technical preparations for global expansion” of Click to Pay, the single buy button solution for online merchants based on the EMVCo Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) standard... More
Apple Pay to add support for QR mobile payments in iOS 14?
Apple is preparing to add support for both merchant-presented and consumer-presented QR mobile payments to Apple Pay later this year, a hidden feature in the second developer beta of iOS 14 suggests... More
Orange Bank introduces mobile-first debit card in Spain
Customers of Orange Bank in Spain will now be automatically issued with a digital debit card that they can use to instantly begin making mobile payments both online and in-store — and can also request a companion physical card that comes without a printed card number, CVC code or expiration date... More
US Bank lets companies instantly send a corporate card to employees’ mobile phones
Corporate customers of US Bank can now send a digital corporate card directly to an employee, contractor, volunteer or customer’s mobile phone, enabling them to instantly begin charging online and in-store purchases to the company — subject to a strict spending limit and expiration date... More
Nedbank to roll out support for contactless payments on standard NFC smartphones
South Africa’s Nedbank has become the first bank in Africa to enable merchants to accept contactless payments on standard NFC phones... More
NatWest lets online merchants accept instant payments from shoppers’ bank accounts
The UK’s NatWest bank has launched Payit, an online payments service that uses open banking to make it possible for merchants to accept payments directly from consumers’ bank accounts... More
European banks to create cross-border instant payments system
Sixteen major European banks have announced plans to jointly create a new company that will be tasked with delivering “a seamless, competitive and unified payment solution” for in-store, online and P2P payments across Europe... More