Google Wallet is now available in Argentina, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro, bringing the total number of countries where the digital wallet is available to 66. More
Retail
Convenience store in Finland offers automated contactless shopping using RFID tags
Residents of a small village in rural Finland now have access to an unstaffed automated contactless convenience store that uses RAIN RFID tags attached to each item to let shoppers quickly and easily self-checkout using a POS solution equipped with an RFID reader that automatically scans all the items in their basket. ... More
NatWest to let UK merchants accept contactless payments on Android smartphones
NatWest bank is launching a software-only point-of-sale (softPOS) solution that will enable merchants in the UK to accept in-person contactless payments on Android NFC smartphones... More
Kuwait International Bank launches contactless biometric payment cards
Customers of Kuwait International Bank (KIB) can now apply for a biometric payment card that allows them to authenticate contactless payments at the point of sale with their fingerprints... More
City of Brighton boosts local economy with digital gift cards that can only be spent at local merchants
Consumers in the English city of Brighton will soon be able to purchase a prepaid digital gift card that can be stored on a smartphone and used to make in-store mobile payments for goods and services at local retailers, restaurants, leisure attractions and other businesses... More
Apple Pay goes live in Honduras and Panama
Apple Pay has launched in Honduras and Panama with support for Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by BAC Credomatic and Banco Promerica in both countries as well as by Banco Ficohsa in Honduras... More
Bank of Korea and Samsung to test offline CBDC payments using NFC
The Bank of Korea (BOK) and Samsung are to test using NFC to make offline central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions with Galaxy smartphones and smart watches without needing an internet connection... More
Apple rolls out Tap to Pay on iPhone to merchants in Australia
Merchants in Australia can now accept in-store contactless payments on iPhones using Apple’s Tap to Pay software point of sale (softPOS) feature... More
Apple Pay launch drives Hyundai Card uptake in Korea
The number of new Hyundai Cards issued in South Korea since Apple Pay launched in the country has now reached 355,000, with nearly eight in ten of new cardholders being Millennials or belonging to Generation Z (79%)... More
UK food bank lets users make in-store purchases with donated funds
Food bank users in the London borough of Hackney in the UK can now buy essential food items at local grocery stores by using a smartphone app to generate a QR code with their face and then use this code to authorise payments from dedicated funds... More
Wendy’s pilots AI for contactless fast food ordering at drive-thrus
Wendy’s is to pilot an automated contactless fast food ordering system that will enable customers to place their orders at a drive-through via an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that will have “the ability to understand made-to-order requests and generate responses to frequently asked questions”... More
Central Bank of Kenya launches national QR payments standard
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has launched a standard for the generation of QR codes in the country’s retail payments sector as the first phase of a nationwide rollout of a universal QR code payments system... More
Apple Pay goes live in El Salvador and Guatemala
Apple Pay has launched in El Salvador and Guatemala with support for Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by BAC Credomatic and Promerica banks in both countries as well as by Banco G&T and Banco Industrial in Guatemala... More
Four in ten US consumers prefer using Google Pay or Apple Pay for bar and restaurant payments
Nearly 40% of consumers in the US say they prefer to pay for their orders at bars and restaurants using mobile payments apps such as Apple Pay or Google Pay rather than a physical credit or debit card, according to a survey... More
Puma uses NFC to authenticate and link physical sneakers with NFTs
Purchasers of a limited edition pair of Grailed Puma Slipstream sneakers can authenticate their purchase and link to a digital twin in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) that they can use in the metaverse by tapping an NFC chip embedded in the physical footwear... More
University of Florida to launch contactless mobile student IDs
Students at the University of Florida in the US will soon be able to gain access to campus buildings, events and library services as well as authorise contactless payments for food, beverages and books using a digital student identity card stored on their Apple or Android NFC smartphone or smartwatch... More
Carrefour Dubai cuts transaction times by 75% with face biometrics
The average transaction time for customers opting to pay for their purchases at Carrefour stores in Dubai with a biometric payment system using face recognition technology is 75% less than for other point-of-sale (POS) payment systems, the retailer says... More
Los Angeles restaurant chain lets customers pay by face or palm
Customers at Pho Banh Mi Che Cali restaurants in Los Angeles in the US can now opt to pay for their orders with either their face or their palm using a biometric payments acceptance system... More
Contactless payments drive 350% increase in EMV transactions at vending machines in Canada and the US
More than half of all EMV card transactions at food and beverage vending machines in the USA and Canada in 2022 were contactless (51.69%) and contactless payments were the main driver for a 350% year-on-year growth in cashless vending machine micropayments made using EMV cards, according to a new study... More
Swatch launches contactless payments on wearables in Thailand
Buyers of Swatch watches in Thailand can now opt to make contactless payments with their NFC wearable device using the Swiss-based company’s SwatchPay! contactless payments service. More