Apple Pay has launched in Morocco with support for debit and credit cards issued by Crédit Immobilier et Hôtelier (CIH) and Groupe Crédit Agricole du Maroc banks... More
Retail
Samsung Wallet lets US students add a campus ID to their Galaxy smartphone
Students with Galaxy smartphones at 68 colleges, universities and higher education institutions across the USA can now add a digital version of their student identity card to Samsung Wallet and use it to access campus buildings and to make contactless onsite purchases... More
Amazon to roll out contactless pay by palm technology to Whole Foods Market stores across the USA
Amazon-owned retail chain Whole Foods Market is to enable customers to gain access to the supermarket and make contactless payments for their purchases with their palm at all of its more than 500 outlets across the USA... More
Puma uses NFC to link physical sneakers with unique digital content
Purchasers of a limited edition pair of RS-XL sneakers in sportswear brand Puma’s Evolution of the Mixtape collection will be able to access digital content including exclusive music and videos by scanning an NFC tag embedded in the shoe with their smartphone... More
Apple to roll out Tap to Pay on iPhone in Brazil
Merchants in Brazil will soon be able to accept contactless payments on their Apple iPhone without needing any additional hardware or accessories... More
Apple goes live in the UK with Tap to Pay on iPhone
Merchants in the UK can now use their Apple iPhone to accept contactless payments, with no additional hardware required, Apple has announced... More
Dior unveils B33 sneakers with NFC
Dior has become the latest luxury fashion brand to introduce a product that uses NFC to link a customer’s physical fashion item to a digital twin... More
Samsung Pay adds support for international student ID cards
Samsung Pay Korea has added support for the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) used by more than 100 million students around the world to demonstrate their eligibility for student-only discounts at museums, accommodation, restaurants, stores and transportation operators in 114 countries... More
European Central Bank reports on digital euro for Contactless World Congress
“We believe that the digital euro is the natural and digital evolution of our currency,” Evelien Witlox, the programme director in charge of the European Central Bank’s digital euro project, reports in a presentation for NFCW’s Contactless World Congress online event series which is now available to view in the NFCW Knowledge Centre... More
Google Wallet to add support for QR mobile payments
Google is adding QR payments to Google Wallet and users in Brazil will be the first in the world to use their Google Wallet to make mobile payments with QR codes, Google VP and country director for Brazil Fabio Coelho has revealed... More
Lotte Duty Free lets shoppers add their passport to its mobile app for passport-free duty free shopping
Residents and visitors to Seoul can now use a digital ID service introduced by Lotte Duty Free to buy duty free goods at the retailer’s downtown stores in South Korea’s capital without needing to take their passport with them to prove their identity... More
Zara replaces single use gift cards with contactless keychains
Fashion retail chain Zara has taken delivery of 18,000 reloadable contactless keychains that shoppers can choose instead of the retailer’s existing single-use plastic cards when buying a prepaid card as a gift... More
Steak ’n Shake to accept face biometrics for payments and rewards at 300 US outlets
US burger and shakes chain Steak ’n Shake is to make use of face biometrics for both payments and rewards at self-ordering kiosks at 300 of its US outlets, beginning in Orlando, Florida... More
Mastercard pilots plastic bank card recycling system
Mastercard and HSBC in the UK are piloting a card recycling system that the payments network hopes will become a blueprint for the global card industry... More
Central Bank of Somalia introduces national QR mobile payment standard
The Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) has unveiled the Somali Quick Response Code (SOMQR), a new EMVCo-based mobile payments standard “that will guide how payment service providers regulated by CBS will issue Quick Response (QR) Codes to merchants and consumers in the country”... More
One in four self-checkout systems are now installed in non-food stores
More than a quarter of the 193,000 self-checkout systems shipped to merchants around the world in 2022 were installed in non-grocery stores “as the technology penetrates new segments”, research firm RBR has found. ... More
Adidas links NFTs to physical sneakers with NFC hang tags
Adidas has partnered with artist Fewocious for a limited edition drop of 4,500 pairs of sneakers that fans will purchase initially as a digital ‘Trefoil Flower Mint Pass’... More
LVMH to bring Tap to Pay on iPhone to US stores
LVMH Group is to equip staff at its Sephora, Christian Dior Couture, Celine, Tiffany & Co and Louis Vuitton stores in the US with iPhones that use Apple’s Tap to Pay softPOS solution from “later this year”. More
Contactless cards accounted for 84% of all global card shipments in 2022
Contactless cards accounted for 84% of the 2.6bn smart cards and modules delivered worldwide by SPA members and advisory council participants in 2022, the Smart Payment Association reports, an increase of 8% on the 76% share in 2021... More
Cantaloupe reports ‘rapid growth’ in contactless payments at vending machines in the US and Canada
EMV payments grew by more than 350% as a share of cashless sales at food and beverage vending machines in the US and Canada in 2022, an analysis of a sample set of almost 675,000 active card readers has found. ... More