Nine in ten consumers taking part in the first European trial of a biometric payment card developed by Mastercard say they “would upgrade or probably upgrade” their favourite card to one that includes the biometric security feature if it was available, a survey by issuing bank UniCredit Bulbank has found... More
Commuters on the F1 Manly to Circular Quay ferry first to tap into contactless ticketing on one of Sydney’s most iconic routes — Mastercard — “Paying for a ferry ride is now as easy as tap-and-go, as Mastercard and Transport for NSW bring contactless ticketing payment to Sydney Ferries… In an Australian first, commuters can use their Mastercard contactless card or mobile wallets that have enabled Mastercard cards to tap on.”
Square gets green light to take on banks with ‘PIN on glass’ mobile technology — Australian Financial Review — “Banks are set to face more competition in the lucrative mobile point of sale technology game as secret trials featuring Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square are set to help credit card companies allow more payments through smartphone screens.”
Churchgoers in England will begin trialling contactless donations in 40 churches across the country this summer, as the Church of England announces plans to roll out contactless handheld terminals to process card payments for donations as a replacement for loose change... More
Commuters travelling on trains run by Swedish transport operator SJ are trialling a system that lets them have their ticket validated using an NFC microchip implanted in their hand... More
Employees at UK bank Barclays and Barclaycard’s London office have begun piloting a new payment concept that allows them to buy low-value goods in the staff restaurant by scanning the barcode on the items using their smartphone and completing the purchase “with a single click” without needing to visit the physical checkout. More
Restaurant chains Eat and Bel-Air are piloting a service in their London locations that delivers real-time receipts to a customer’s mobile banking app by linking to the purchases they make using their bank cards at the retailer’s point-of-sale terminal. The service is also being trialled by UK challenger bank Monzo. More
The Bank of Korea (BOK) has signed up retailers including CU, 7-Eleven, E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store to begin trialling a service that will give customers change in the form of a top-up to a prepaid card... More
Employees at Pick n Pay supermarket stores and Absa Bank staff across South Africa have been trialling a biometric card developed by Mastercard that lets them make a payment at any EMV terminal and authenticate the transaction by placing their finger on the embedded sensor. Additional trials are planned over the next few months, with a full roll out expected “later this year”. More
Customers of Lloyds Banking Group across the UK will soon be able to log into their online banking accounts using fingerprint or facial recognition through Microsoft’s Windows Hello biometric authentication technology. The banking group is to trial the solution with Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers with Windows 10 devices in the second half of this year. More
Customers of Australia’s ANZ bank will soon be able to make higher value transactions on their mobile devices by authenticating the payment using their voice... More
Customers of Australian bank Westpac will soon be able to use an innovative replacement for the default keyboard found in social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to make P2P money transfers to friends, family and businesses as well as send cardless cash codes to recipients for ATM withdrawals. More
Customers at select McDonald’s restaurants across the UK can now order ahead using their mobile phone... More
Fast food giant McDonald’s has begun testing its mobile order and pay service at 29 restaurants in the Californian cities of Monterey and Salinas... More
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has conducted trial runs of a prototype cryptocurrency it has been developing since 2014 that could be used “to buy anything from noodles to a car”, The Straits Times reports... More
Beta tests of the Virtual Piggy mobile payments platform for children, which “offers the ability for children to learn how to use the payment tools of the digital economy” with parental controls built in, will begin in April... More
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has begun a three-month trial of facial recognition technology at one of its boarding gates... More
Customers at London music venue Proud Camden can now pay for orders using Fingopay finger vein technology and get £10 cashback to spend on their next visit... More
The average size of donations made to a UK charity using contactless collection tins was more than three times larger than the average cash donation, The Telegraph reports... More
Festival goers at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival taking place across five Australian cities are trialling prototype sunglasses that let them make contactless payments by tapping them against a contactless POS terminal... More