The number of digital loyalty programme memberships that offer consumers rewards and incentives such as discounts, vouchers, cashback and reward points will grow by 33% from 24bn worldwide in 2022 to more than 32bn in 2026, according to a forecast by Juniper Research... More
Holders of Edenred prepaid incentive and rewards cards in the UK can now add their card to Apply Pay and make mobile and online payments for food, fuel, transport, parking and corporate transactions with their iPhone, Apple Watch or other Apple Pay-enabled device... More
Dubai’s RTA to introduce loyalty programme for Nol cards — Gulf Business — “The programme, called Nol+, will be available to the public by the end of this year. Cardholders will receive points for using them to pay for fares of public transport means, parking fees, entering public parks, and visiting the Etihad Museum. The points will then be converted into coupon vouchers offering free services in cafes, restaurants and entertainment centres.”
A digital cash service allowing consumers — including those without bank accounts — to load money onto a range of wearable items and make contactless payments in retail outlets will roll out across “eight or nine countries” in North America, Europe and Africa from April 2017... More
US consumers will soon be able to purchase goods using loyalty points from multiple programs through Verifone Points Redemption, a new service designed for merchants which connects to third party loyalty programs and alerts shoppers when they have enough points available to complete a payment... More
Customers of Pakistan’s Askari Bank can now withdraw cash from ATMs using their mobile phone... More
Indian payment services provider Citrus Pay has raised approximately US$25m from a consortium of new and existing investors... More
Indian payment services provider Citrus Pay has announced a partnership with gift card solutions provider Qwikcilver to enable its 17m users to make in-store mobile payments using a gift card or voucher generated in Qwikcilver’s Woohoo mobile gifting app... More
Hong Kong mobile network operator SmarTone has unveiled Kissco, an end-to-end mobile marketing platform incorporating Kiss Pay, a mobile payments service based on NFC and ultrasound technology, a Kiss Dollars loyalty program and Kiss Beacons to allow retailers to send out offers and promotions directly to customers’ smartphones from their stores... More
Financial products and services provider The Bancorp will offer open loop mobile prepaid cards that make use of host card emulation (HCE) to its European issuers in the fourth quarter of this year, through a partnership with mobile payment provider MeaWallet... More
Close to one million New Zealanders now have the ability to make NFC payments with the nationwide launch of Semble, a SIM-based mobile wallet introduced by two New Zealand banks, three carriers and payments network Paymark... More
Finland’s largest financial services group is to add support for HCE payments to the mobile wallet app it introduced two years ago... More
French supermarket chain Intermarché has introduced an NFC shopping service at its Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris store, enabling customers to add products to a digital shopping basket and receive personalised discount vouchers with a tap of their NFC phone... More
Customers of Dutch financial institution Rabobank with a Samsung Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 3 can now use a mobile wallet app that works with the secure element embedded in their mobile device to make NFC payments, check balances, store loyalty cards and redeem vouchers... More
The HCE wristband unveiled by technology provider Wirecard earlier this month is to be offered on a white label basis, Joern Leogrande, the company’s EVP of mobile services, has told NFC World+... More
Meal voucher provider Edenred France is piloting NFC payments with Orange and MasterCard to let users pay for meals with their smartphones in restaurants affiliated to Ticket Restaurant and equipped with a contactless terminal... More
Glasgow City Council-owned bus shelters around the Scottish city will be fitted with NFC tags and QR codes to allow people to engage with advertisers by accessing interactive content such as vouchers, games and videos using their smartphones... More
Finnish mobile wallet Pivo has now been downloaded to 300,000 smartphones and a third of users — more than 100,000 — are making use of the app every day... More
The TSM service for NFC payments being built by a joint venture between five Taiwanese carriers and prepaid card provider Easycard is to go live by the end of 2014, the partners have announced... More
Two thirds of UK smartphone owners are open to the idea of using a mobile wallet, according to a survey conducted by Marketing Sciences — but most consumers want to use a mobile wallet to collect loyalty points and offers rather than for making payments... More