Canadians can now use the MintChip virtual currency to send and receive money through a P2P mobile app and make payments at participating merchants in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood by scanning a barcode... More
Trial
Pizza Hut Asia trials order and pay using a robot called Pepper
Customers at Pizza Hut locations in Asia will soon be able to place orders, receive offers and complete payments on a tablet held by Pepper, a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank Robotics. The transactions will be completed through MasterCard’s MasterPass digital wallet service. More
The State Bank of Vietnam urges transition to EMV
The State Bank of Vietnam has instructed banks to “quickly carry out a plan to convert all magnetic cards into chip cards to prevent fraud”, according to Vietnam News... More
US pilot for real-time payments system
Financial services provider FIS and banking association The Clearing House (TCH) are to pilot a real-time payments system with financial institutions in the US in the first quarter of 2017, with an initial focus on bill payments... More
Samsung Pay to launch in Singapore in Q2 this year
Samsung Pay will launch in Singapore in the second quarter of this year, the company has announced, adding it to South Korea, the US and China on the list of Samsung’s “priority markets”... More
New South Wales to get contactless travel
Australian commuters across New South Wales will be able to pay for public transport with their contactless credit and debit cards from next year, the NSW Government has announced... More
Android Pay to expand into Europe ‘soon’
Google is actively working towards launching Android Pay in Europe, director of emerging platforms Spencer Spinnell has revealed at Money20/20 Europe... More
Tesco rolls out PayQwiq mobile payments to 524 stores
UK supermarket giant Tesco’s PayQwiq mobile payments service, which lets customers pay using an Android or Apple phone by snapping an image of a QR code located at each checkout, is now live in 524 of the retailer’s stores in London and Edinburgh... More
Singapore commuters get NFC payments
Customers of mobile network operators M1, Singtel and StarHub can now pay for journeys on public transport services in Singapore with a tap of their NFC device as a result of a partnership between the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and transport card issuer EZ-Link. More
Austria gets nationwide SIM-based NFC mobile payment service
Austrians can now make SIM-based NFC mobile payments using a new nationwide mobile payment service launched by Payment Services Austria (PSA) and supported by Austria Card... More
Waitrose trials ‘scan as you shop’ mobile app
Customers at upmarket UK supermarket chain Waitrose are trialling a ‘scan as you shop’ mobile app in three branches that lets them scan product barcodes on their phones as they place goods in their basket... More
Paytm aims to sign up 4m stores in India for mobile payments
Indian mobile payments platform Paytm plans to double its in-store merchant acceptance to four million locations this year, the company’s CEO has told Economic Times... More
Google pilots hands-free payments in San Francisco
Shoppers in San Francisco’s South Bay area are being invited to take part in a pilot test of Hands Free, a payment service developed by Google that uses a combination of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Wi-Fi and location services to let consumers make in-store payments without taking their mobile phone out of their pocket. More
Swiss P2P payments service moves in-store with QR codes
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
Paytm trials sound-based payments
Indian mobile payment platform Paytm is trialling a Sound Pay feature that will enable users of its mobile app to make in-store payments via ultrasonic sound waves which transmit data — including payment amount and customer credentials — to the point of sale... More
Azerbaijan to get universal mobile payment system
A new mobile payments system is to begin undergoing tests in Azerbaijan this month, according to Azernews... More
Canadian pilot for NFC public transport solution
Canadian NFC mobile wallet service Suretap and TSM provider EnStream have completed a proof of concept trial with public transport agency Société de transport de Montréal (STM) that enabled transit passengers to pay fares using their smartphone. More
Deutsche Bank trials multi-factor authentication
Customers of Deutsche Bank are testing technology which verifies their identity by the way they handle and hold their mobile device... More
ING opens up HCE to all Netherlands customers
ING has made its host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payments service available to all its customers in the Netherlands with an NFC phone running Android 4.4 or higher following a trial that began in September 2015... More
Air New Zealand gives children NFC wristbands to track their journey
Children travelling alone on Air New Zealand services will now receive an NFC Airband wristband that gets scanned at key points in their journey and triggers text notifications to up to five nominated contacts. More