Shoppers in Switzerland can now make in-store mobile payments using Paymit, the P2P transfer service established by the country’s financial infrastructure operator SIX and telecommunications provider Swisscom... More
Retail
LTA to test account-based contactless ticketing in Singapore
Commuters in Singapore will be piloting a new ticketing system in the fourth quarter of this year that will let them use their contactless debit or credit cards for fare payments across Land Transport Authority (LTA) services, with the fare being charged to their credit or debit card accounts... More
US mobile payments at the POS to increase 54% this year
Mobile payments made at the point of sale in the US will increase 54% in 2016 compared to 2015, with continued growth expected through 2019, research from Packaged Facts predicts... More
Visa simplifies Checkout sign-ups
Visa Checkout users will soon be able to scan an image of their credit or debit card with their mobile device to sign up to the service, rather than having to enter their information manually... More
Barclaycard reports increase in UK contactless spending
Contactless spending by Barclaycard’s UK customers in pubs and bars, pharmacies, supermarkets and on commuter transport increased 164% in 2015, the company has revealed. More
WeChat Pay now available to overseas merchants
Chinese internet giant Tencent has made its WeChat Pay platform available to overseas vendors so they can serve Chinese consumers when they travel abroad... More
China UnionPay and Visa partner on payments innovation
Payment networks China UnionPay and Visa have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Shanghai to collaborate on “providing cardholders with more convenient, secure and highly efficient payment services” with a focus on security, innovation and financial inclusion... More
US EMV adoption slower than expected
Some 37% of US merchant locations are now EMV-ready, according to management consulting firm The Strawhecker Group (TSG)... More
India’s Freecharge wallet signs another mPOS network
Indian closed-loop mobile wallet provider FreeCharge has partnered with mobile point of sale provider Ezetap to let its users make in-store mobile payments at “thousands of Ezetap service points consisting of small and mid-sized retailers across India”... More
Visa Checkout heads to six new markets
Visa is expanding its online payment service to France, India, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK this year, taking the total footprint to 22 markets... More
Nearly 1bn to use NFC payments by 2019
A total of 1.09bn people will be making mobile proximity payments globally by 2019, of which 939.10m will be made through NFC, Ovum’s new m-payments forecast reveals. The total transaction value of mobile proximity payments will grow from US$4.77bn to $141.21bn over the same time period. More
Telenor Wallet adds MasterPass
Customers of Hungarian mobile network operator Telenor can now make online and in-app payments using Telenor Wallet and MasterPass... More
Gemalto and Prosa bring HCE payments to Mexico
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto and payment processor Prosa have partnered to bring host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments to Mexico... More
Mobile payments face “substantial hurdles” in 2016, says Atlanta Fed
Limited merchant acceptance points, fragmentation and consumer concerns over security and privacy will remain “substantial hurdles” to mobile payments at the physical point of sale in 2016, according to analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta... More
CU Wallet to offer MasterPass to 120 credit unions
The 120 member credit unions behind mobile payment platform CU Wallet can now offer MasterCard’s MasterPass digital wallet service to their customers through their own branded mobile apps... More
Mahindra powers AsiaHawala mobile money in Iraq
PARTNER NEWS: Customers of Iraqi mobile network operator Asiacell can now make P2P transfers, settle bills and pay merchants using AsiaHawala, a mobile money service powered by Mahindra Comviva’s Mobiquity Money solution... More
MasterCard to launch ‘selfie pay’ in the US, Canada and Europe this summer
Consumers across the US, Canada and parts of Europe will soon be able to authenticate their online transactions with their fingerprint or face using MasterCard’s ‘selfie pay’ system. The confirmed launch of the service — expected this summer — follows a successful pilot in the Netherlands. More
Visa extends Visa Token Service to auto manufacturers
Visa is extending its Visa Token Service platform to auto manufacturers to enable in-vehicle payment experiences through Visa Checkout. The company has partnered with Honda and car parking solutions provider ParkWhiz to demonstrate fuel and parking proof-of-concept solutions at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. More
G&D connects its issuers to MDES for tokenization
PARTNER NEWS: Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has integrated its Convego CloudPay solution with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to enable issuers to work directly with G&D to implement tokenization for their host card emulation (HCE) based wallets... More
Canada’s Interac debit network launches tokenization service
Canadian debit network Interac has unveiled its own token generation and management service that will enable financial institutions, merchants and its partners to build and manage secure digital payment experiences with support for tokenized digital debit transactions on any device or mobile wallet... More