Spanish bank BBVA has launched its open banking program by making eight of its APIs commercially available for the first time, meaning that third-party companies including startups and developers will be able to build new products and services by accessing and integrating customers’ banking data into their applications. More
Mobile wallet Curve launches ‘time travel’ tool to let you ‘shop in the past’ — Wired — “Once a person’s cards are uploaded to the Curve platform, they are all stored on a single Curve card. When shopping, they can then choose which account they would like to shop with using an app. If they change their mind, for example if they paid using a credit card but meant to pay with a debit card, the time travel tool lets them go back and swap.”
Tattoo artists across the US, Australia, Austria and Singapore have signed up to start offering their customers augmented reality tattoos that get inked onto the skin and play audio clips when scanned by a smartphone using a mobile app that is due to be released in June 2017. More
NXP has announced that its Android Things platform now supports the new Google Cloud IoT Core, enabling enterprise and city developers to use NXP’s platform “to help create a smart, interconnected system of devices that are securely managed and provisioned through the Google Cloud”. More
Obtaining Mastercard and Visa security compliance and keeping in line with the payment ecosystem’s best practices will help to “reinforce” host card emulation (HCE) security levels and minimise the success rates of hacking attempts, says HCE and tokenization provider Antelop Solutions. More
Supermarket giant Carrefour and French bank BNP Paribas have unveiled a new QR code-based mobile payment platform that will let customers make in-store, online and peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments as well as store loyalty cards, coupons and special offers on their mobile device. More
PARTNER NEWS: German car manufacturer Daimler’s smartphone-based digital vehicle key for its Mercedes-Benz E-Class range that lets drivers lock and unlock their cars as well as start the engine using an NFC device is being supported by digital security giant Gemalto’s Trusted Services Hub (TSH). More
A group of German and other European companies including banks, vehicle manufacturers and technology providers have signed a “corresponding declaration of intent” to establish a joint, pan-industry platform that will let their customers use a “so-called master key” for registration and identification when accessing online services across a range of sectors including government, aviation and retail. More
Open communication and the right education for customers is key to the successful deployment of a host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payment service in a country where new banks — with their simple products and new communication style — are becoming more attractive to the younger generation, says Czech bank CSOB’s innovation manager. More
Visa has developed a range of customised digital card management “experiences” that will allow issuers to offer Visa cardholders “greater control and insight over how they pay, where they pay and who can pay” with a digital version of their Visa card... More
PARTNER NEWS: NFC World partners Antelop Solutions, Gemalto, Mahindra Comviva and Rambus will be attending the Seamless Middle East 2017 expo in Dubai from 1 to 2 May... More
Restaurant chains Eat and Bel-Air are piloting a service in their London locations that delivers real-time receipts to a customer’s mobile banking app by linking to the purchases they make using their bank cards at the retailer’s point-of-sale terminal. The service is also being trialled by UK challenger bank Monzo. More
Customers of Singapore’s DBS Bank and OCBC Bank will soon be able to make in-store mobile payments by scanning a QR code at any point-of-sale terminal belonging to the country’s electronic payments network Nets. More
Six Dutch banks including ABN Amro, ASN Bank, ING, Rabobank, Regiobank and SNS have announced their intention to launch Payconiq in the Netherlands this summer. Payconiq is a common mobile payment platform that lets customers make P2P payments as well as pay in-store and online and has been successfully piloted and launched in Belgium with support from ING, KBC and Belfius banks. More
PARTNER NEWS: Guala Closures Group, a world leader in security closures, has teamed up with NXP to introduce an NFC-based tamper evident closure solution for the wine and spirits industry that is designed to protect brands, enable advanced anti-counterfeiting and tamper-proofing and enable brand owners to make VIP offers, loyalty rewards and more available to customers through a tap of their NFC mobile device. More
PARTNER NEWS: Antelop Solutions and Rambus will be exhibiting at the Seamless Asia expo in Singapore from 19 to 20 April... More
Android Pay has been integrated into the mobile banking apps of “several banks around the world” so that users can add their cards to the mobile payment service with “just the click of a button”. The feature will also work for those who have not installed Android Pay on their handset, giving them access to “the capabilities of Android Pay” without having to leave their mobile banking app. More
LG plans to add facial recognition technology to its LG Pay mobile payments platform, according to The Investor... More
Facebook Messenger users across the US can now send and receive money between groups of people in a Messenger conversation by selecting the payments icon and then choosing who to send or request money from using a list of conversation participants. More
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) decision to rule against a group of banks seeking access to the NFC technology within Apple’s iPhones “stifles innovation” from the banks and other players in the market, according to Westpac’s Dave Curran... More