Passengers who use their Opal transit card to pay for transport fares in the Australian state of New South Wales are to take part in a pilot of a digital version of the card which is set to go live before the end of this year... More
Citizens of the Bahamas can now make payments and transfers from a digital wallet using the country’s Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
China’s ‘red envelope’ lottery giveaway of digital yuan to 50,000 residents of Shenzhen resulted in 62,788 transactions with a total value of 8.764m yuan (US$1.32m) during the week-long central bank digital currency (CBDC) test in the city... More
Passengers using public transport in the Kazakhstan capital of Nur-Sultan will be able to pay for their tickets by showing their face to an on-board camera from the beginning of next year... More
Card issuer Shinhan Card is providing consumers in South Korea, where Apple Pay is yet to launch, with a phone case that uses soundwave technology to enable them to make contactless payments with their iPhone... More
The Scottish Government is to pilot a national digital identity system that enables citizens to store their identity information in their own ‘Attribute Store’ and then “share these attributes with other public sector service providers as and when needed”... More
Customers at four KFC outlets in Japan can now order and pay for their meals online, set a time for collection and then pick up their order from a contactless locker installed on the store’s counter... More
Employees of French retail chain Monoprix are testing an automated self-service store that uses AI-based product recognition technology to enable them to select and pay for their products without going through a checkout... More
The Russian government is expected to adopt a law that will enable Russian consumers to use face and voice recognition to authenticate in-store payments in shops, cafes and other retail outlets by the end of 2020, Izvestia reports... More
Nearly two million Shenzhen residents, representing 15% of the city’s population, signed up for a chance to win 200 digital yuan (US$29.65) in the ‘red envelope’ lottery held as part of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot... More
The Bank of Japan is to begin the first phase of proof-of-concept testing of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in early 2021, according to a statement published by the bank... More
Users of Razer Pay, a digital wallet operated by gaming lifestyle brand Razer in Singapore, are taking part in the beta test of a premium prepaid card that lights up whenever a contactless payment is made... More
Consumers in the city of Shenzhen are being offered the opportunity to win one of 50,000 ‘red envelopes’ containing 200 digital yuan (US$29.65) that they can spend at any of more than 3,000 retail outlets in the city that now accept China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Krispy Kreme customers in Charlotte, South Carolina in the US, can now use their mobile device to buy selected variety packs of doughnuts from an automated cash-free vending machine that is in operation 24 hours a day... More
More than 113,000 Chinese consumers have now used a digital wallet supporting “multiple payment methods, including barcode, facial recognition and tap-and-go transactions” to conduct a transaction using China’s new central bank digital currency, the People’s Bank of China has revealed. More
Customers of Volksbank Raiffeisenbank in Germany are taking part in the pilot of a self-service terminal designed to drive new revenue streams by making a wide range of additional services available in bank branches... More
Passengers on Adelaide Metro’s tram network can now make contactless fare payments with their credit or debit card or their tap-and-pay digital wallet without needing a metroCARD transit card or using cash... More
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
Staff in Thailand’s Department of Disease Control (DDC) are testing an NFC wristband that has been developed to track Covid-19 patients and people who are self-quarantining in a bid to control the spread of infection... More
Residents and small businesses in nine UK communities are taking part in a series of pilot schemes which aim to improve access to cash in rural and disadvantaged areas, where individuals remain dependent on cash but where bank branches and ATMs have closed down and local cash infrastructure is under threat... More
