Twelve vending machine providers with an installed base of more than one million vending machines have signed up for Civic Pay, a blockchain-based platform that combines identity and age verification, QR code mobile payments, loyalty and rewards... More
Sports retailer Decathlon has incorporated RFID tags into products at its first physical store in the US... More
Amazon Pay makes an offline push with ‘scan and pay’ service — Livemint — “We have begun introducing Amazon SmileCode, a new way for our customers to shop and pay at physical stores like Shoppers Stop, among others,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “Customers will soon find Amazon SmileCodes in neighbourhood retail stores, where they can scan and pay for their purchases seamlessly.”
Traffic violators beware, new driving licences, registration certificates coming from October — The Times of India — “The new DLs [driving licences] and RCs [vehicle registration certificates] will have a QR code that can be read by hand-held devices to access the past records of the driver or the vehicle from the central online database… ‘Though there was a proposal to make the chip and NFC feature mandatory, the Centre decided to leave the option to the state governments,’ said an official.”
The NFC Forum has released a new candidate specification that makes it easy for mobile payments services based on QR codes to add NFC functionality, giving “payment service providers and consumers the opportunity to take advantage of the simple and secure NFC-based payment solutions already in use worldwide.”... More
UPDATED J-Coin Pay, a digital currency-based payments service that will support both P2P payments and enable consumers to make QR mobile payments in stores, will go live in Japan on 1 March, developer Mizuho Financial Group has announced... More
Kroger introduces Kroger Pay and Kroger Rewards debit card — The Kroger Co — “After a customer enters their custom PIN or biometrics, the app provides customers with a single-use QR code to scan at the terminal to quickly communicate payment and loyalty card information, which includes digital coupons and personalized offers… Kroger Pay recently launched in the retailer’s Columbus, Ohio division. The service will roll out to 10 additional markets in the spring, with plans to go nationwide later this year.”
A mobile payments app that supports contactless payment via NFC and both static and dynamic QR codes has been launched in Belgium... More
A stylish wooden puck incorporating an NFC tag that allows iPhones as well as Android devices to log onto a WiFi network with a single tap has been launched by New Jersey-based Ten One Design... More
DBS pilots world’s first loadable QR red packets — DBS Bank — “DBS is introducing a new way to celebrate Chinese New Year this year with the pilot launch of a loadable QR red packet (DBS QR Ang Bao), a global first… Customers simply need to scan a unique QR code on a DBS QR Ang Bao to ‘load’ a cash value of up to SGD 999. They may then gift the DBS QR Ang Bao to their family and friends, who can scan the QR code with their own DBS PayLah! app to receive the loaded amount.”
UnionPay International gives global developers access to its APIs — UnionPay International — “UnionPay International is providing three types of services via UPI Developer: First, offer open access to its major APIs. Developers now have access to the APIs of 18 of UnionPay’s most popular payment and data services, including QR code payment and Token. Second, offer a combination of multiple APIs to provide partners with one-stop payment solutions, assisting them in both product developing and commercial application. Third, offer diverse technical support services, including technical documentation, technical guidance and product testing and certification.”
JCB launches QR code payment in the Asian region — JCB — “Bank SinoPac in Taiwan and Sacombank in Vietnam became the first banks to offer the JCB QR Code Payment service. SinoPac will start the service full scale at merchants who used to accept only cash such as fish markets, flower markets and taxis in January 2019… Sacombank has just announced its new mobile banking app ‘Sacombank Pay’, for which their JCB cardmember can choose JCB Card as a source of funds.”
Mizuho to launch digital currency to promote cashless payments in March — Nikkei Asian Review — “Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group plans to introduce a proprietary digital currency that can be used for shopping and remitted at no cost… To make use of the currency, users will download a dedicated app on their smartphone. Payments will be made using QR codes… Regional banks will be able to provide the same service under the same, yet-to-be-named brand to their customers.”
Apple has agreed to make changes to the way that Apple Pay works following an investigation by Weko, Switzerland’s Competition Commission — also known as Comco — which found that the iPhone maker’s NFC payments service can cause issues with the functioning of the Swiss banks’ Twint mobile payment service... More
Alipay Box to utilize facial recognition tech for payments — Shine — “Alibaba’s financial and payment affiliate Ant Financial has released smart payment hardware called Alipay Box, integrating barcode scanning and facial recognition features… The plug-and-play device, which is smaller than a traditional self-service point of sale (POS) machine, does not require an overhaul of the merchants’ existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.”
Fans of one of Europe’s top soccer clubs will be able to use the NFC functionality in their iPhone or Apple Watch to gain admittance to games at the team’s home stadium from 19 December... More
SoftBank and Yahoo Japan-backed PayPay is to go live in Japan on 4 December with a 10bn yen (US$88.6m) promotional campaign that will see users receiving a 20% cashback on all the purchases they make with the new QR mobile payments service between the launch date and 31 March 2019, up to a monthly cashback total of 50,000 yen (US$443) per customer... More
The Royal British Legion is distributing contactless cards at charity events in the UK which participants can scan with an NFC phone to be automatically directed to a website where they can make a donation using either Paypal or a bank card... More
Convenience store giant 7-Eleven is piloting a mobile self-checkout service in 14 stores in the Dallas area, just two months after it began accepting contactless and mobile payments across its 8,000+ US stores... More
“The US market is poised for significant contactless growth over the coming year,” Visa CEO Alfred F Kelly has told analysts... More
