PARTNER NEWS: NXP has launched a family of ultra-low power multiprotocol wireless microcontrollers designed to enable smart home device makers to build eco-friendly products — and include support for NFC connectivity to “dramatically simplify the pairing process”... More
An additional 110m contactless payment cards will be issued in 2020 compared with pre-Covid-19 forecast expectations, ABI Research predicts, bringing the total in circulation to more than 2bn... More
Face-based payments offer the potential to improve customer convenience and increase checkout speeds in stores but require consumer education to be built into the user experience to alleviate security concerns, an in-depth study of services currently on offer in China has found... More
PARTNER NEWS: NFC-based intelligent labels and packages offer “the safety and security necessary to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 while giving scientists, medical staff and patients the ability to interact with products so they can verify authenticity, check expiration dates and even gain useful insights into the nature of the virus,” NXP has explained... More
Costa Rica has announced plans to implement a national, multimodal transit ticketing infrastructure that includes support for both QR mobile payments and EMV contactless cards and devices... More
The Car Connectivity Consortium has announced the completion of an NFC-based digital key specification designed to deliver “a standardized ecosystem that enables mobile devices to store, authenticate, and share digital keys for vehicles in a secure, privacy-preserving way that works everywhere”... More
PARTNER NEWS: Blackhawk Network subsidiary One4all is using Dejamobile’s ReadyToTap Gifts & Rewards solution to make it possible for UK consumers and businesses to send a digital gift card directly to a recipient’s mobile phone — and for the recipient to then use it to make payments online and at contactless terminals in stores... More
JCB has launched Tap on Mobile, a contactless payments acceptance solution that uses off-the-shelf Android NFC devices to enable its acquirers to offer “a cost-effective payment solution to their merchants”... More
Leaked screenshots of a new Google Pay debit card, to be issued by banks partnering with the search engine giant for its planned move into the US banking market, include mention of an option to use a digital version of the card “for Bluetooth mobile payments”... More
KNOWLEDGE CENTRE: Convenience, consumer choice, and the ability to use contactless payments for public transportation hold the key to driving the mass market adoption of wearable payments in urban environments, Timex, Mastercard and Tappy explain in a panel discussion which is now available to watch free of charge in the NFCW Knowledge Centre... More
New Zealand is to progressively roll out a temporary increase in the country’s contactless transaction limit “over the coming days and weeks” — but customers of two banks will miss out “due to technology constraints” unless they order a new card or make use of mobile payments... More
Customers of Starling Bank are now able to request an additional, specially restricted payment card that can be given to a friend, family member or volunteer shopper “to buy essential items on their behalf”... More
Royal Bank of Canada has added new features to its mobile app that make it quicker and easier for customers opening a new bank account at a branch to prove their identity... More
Payments standards body EMVCo has extended its security evaluation methodologies and processes to include support for IoT products and solutions, “enabling emerging solutions and devices to be evaluated quickly and efficiently”... More
Students, faculty and staff at Santa Clara University in the US can now add their Access student ID card to Apple Wallet and use their iPhone and Apple Watch to access buildings, attend athletic events, purchase meals and check out books from the library, the Silicon Valley-based university has announced... More
Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank has begun testing a digital currency designed to enable consumers to store an electronic version of the Swedish krona in a digital wallet and make payments, deposits and withdrawals using a mobile app... More
The next edition of Android will include support for mobile driving licences and will also provide enhanced biometric verification features, Google has revealed... More
The next version of the Chrome web browser for Android will include support for NFC tags, making it possible for developers to integrate tag reading, writing and data exchange directly into websites and web apps to improve the user experience and add new functionality — without the need for a user to download an app... More
Transportation ticketing specialist Corethree has introduced a service that enables transit operators to let passengers tap low-cost NFC tags placed on board a bus or other public transport service to activate and validate a prepaid mobile ticket... More
Developers and researchers can now make their own Fido-compliant NFC, Bluetooth and USB hardware security keys using new open source software developed by Google... More