U.K. Banks Eye Apple Pay, But Some Fear a Worm (Jan. 6, 2015)
Several major British banks reportedly are in negotiations with Apple to bring the tech giant’s Apple Pay service to the U.K. before the midway point of this year.
Mobile
Chevron to Add Apple Pay at Gas Pumps (Jan. 5, 2015)
Drivers soon will be able to pay with Apple Pay when filling up at Chevron stations, now that the fuel chain has announced plans to integrate the contactless payment system into its pumps.
Starbucks, Square Go Separate Ways on Mobile Payments (Dec. 22, 2014)
The mobile payments piece of Starbucks’ partnership with Square has ended.
M&A Roundup: Mozido, CorFire, Payment Data Systems, Akimbo Financial (Dec. 22, 2014)
Industry experts earlier this year predicted abundant M&A activity in the payments industry, and they are being proved correct right to the very end of 2014.
Biometrics – novel solution, or novelty?
One of the trends of 2014 was its delivery of technology that we had been promised for years but had fallen short until now. Siri, Cortana and Google Now all make good on the sci-fi staple of the voice-activated computer. Virtual reality has been attempted many times, but it seems that the Oculus Rift may have finally cracked it. And biometric authentication, while often included in devices but rarely used, is now commonly used by owners of new iPhones to unlock their devices thanks to Touch ID.
Apple Making it Easier for PayPal, Google Wallet Users (Dec. 16, 2014)
Apple in recent weeks has become somewhat more accommodating to consumers who use PayPal or Google Wallet. For example, consumers in the U.S. and U.K. now may use PayPal when making purchases on Apple’s online store.
LevelUp Completes NCR Silver Integration, Rolls Out Gift Card Feature (Dec. 16, 2014)
NCR Corp. today announced the NCR Silver POS system now includes a feature enabling merchants to easily add LevelUp, the mobile payments and loyalty network, to customer payment options.
Fiserv: Millions of Consumers Want Mobile Bill Pay, Options (Dec. 15, 2014)
The growth in consumer popularity of mobile bill pay features continues unabated as 27 million U.S. households with access to the Internet are paying at least one bill from their phones, an increase of nearly 70 percent compared with 2013, according to The Seventh Annual Billing Household Survey from Fiserv.
Are Driver’s Licenses Headed for Mobile Wallets? (Dec. 15, 2014)
If Maxwell the talking pig can show a police officer his proof of Geico insurance on a smartphone, why not a driver’s license?
Monitise to Develop Mobile Products and Services for Virgin Money (Dec. 9, 2014)
U.K.-based mobile money provider Monitise plc has signed a 7-year agreement with Virgin Money to develop digital banking products and services for Virgin Money customers.
Funding Roundup: Stripe, Dynamics Inc., Atom Bank (Dec. 8, 2014)
Millions of dollars keep flowing into the payments industry as investors recently showed support for advanced payments cards from Dynamics Inc., Stripe’s e-commerce solutions and a digital-only Atom Bank.
Mobile Payments App Helps Kohl’s Enroll 20 Million Customers in its Loyalty Program (Dec. 8, 2014)
Department store Kohl’s Corp. expects to enjoy the fruits of combining a mobile payments app with loyalty this holiday season.
UnionPay Signs Payments Deals with Apple, China Telecom (Dec. 2, 2014)
China UnionPay continues to take steps to make it easier for its customers to make payments on their mobile devices.
Monitise Bolsters Platform with £49 Million Investment, Expanded Partnerships (Dec. 2, 2014)
U.K.-based mobile money provider Monitise plc is getting a major capital infusion, landing a £49.2 million (US$77 million) investment from the trio of MasterCard, Santander Group and Telefónica.
Tablets and phones becoming the norm for e-retail
While online retailers roll their Black Friday bargains over to Cyber Monday, research shows that an increasing amount of online sales are being made via smartphones and tablets, and this trend is continuing – but this does not mean smaller crowds, as consumers are also switching to ‘click & collect’ services.
NRF: Holiday Weekend Shopping Drops 5.2 Percent from 2013 (Dec. 1, 2014)
Holiday shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend was slightly lower than the previous year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.
UGO Wallet Available to Customers of Canada’s Largest Telecoms (Dec. 1, 2014)
UGO Wallet, an NFC mobile wallet developed by UGO Mobile Solutions and Canadian banks President’s Choice Financial and TD Bank Group, launched last week and is available to customers of Canada’s three largest wireless carriers.
‘Contactless’ Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year Finalist (Dec. 1, 2014)
Is it a surprise to anyone in the payments industry that the word “contactless” was a finalist this year as Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year?
Monitise deepens ties with partners to raise £49 million
Monitise plans to raise £49.2 million through extensions of its relationships with Santander, Telefónica and MasterCard. The money raised will be used to ‘support the development and accelerated roll-out of its global platform capabilities’.
Cardpool, LevelUp Turn Gift Cards into Loyalty Credits (Nov. 25, 2014)
Gift card exchange Cardpool is partnering with LevelUp to make the most coveted gift—the gift card—more valuable by enabling LevelUp users to exchange unused and partially used gift cards for LevelUp credits at more than 14,000 participating merchants.
M-Payments Roundup: PayPal, Apple Pay, Square (Nov. 25, 2014)
The recent launch of the Apple Pay wallet app on the latest iterations of iPhone handsets has created a flurry of activity among m-payments providers trying to attract as many consumers as they can to their solutions.
Oink Teen Wallet adds Discover Companion Card (Nov. 24, 2014)
Virtual Piggy Inc. has unveiled a new prepaid card targeted for use by teens, who can use the card to shop at brick-and-mortar stores within limits set and managed by their parents.
Apple Pay Faces Same Hurdles as other Mobile Wallets (Nov. 20, 2014)
Apple Pay has generated significant buzz since it launched on Oct. 21—and more than 1 million credit cards were registered in the payment app within 72 hours—but Leon Majors, president of the payments practice at Phoenix Marketing International, presented research in Chicago last week at BAI Retail Delivery 2014 that suggests Apple may have some of the same difficulties that have plagued other mobile wallets, including low acceptance.
Softcard Enlists ‘Tappy’ to Teach the Masses about NFC (Nov. 18, 2014)
A bug-eyed puppet in the shape of a POS device might be just what Softcard needs to get consumers thinking about tapping their phones more often to pay at the POS.
P2P Rush Continues as Snapchat Debuts Transfer Feature (Nov. 18, 2014)
Popular social messaging service Snapchat is the latest tech provider to throw its hat into the P2P money transfer ring.
Google Wallet for Digital Goods to Be Discontinued (Nov. 17, 2014)
Merchants using “Google Wallet for digital goods” to accept online payments on their Websites soon will have to find a new provider, and consumers no longer will be able to check out with the Google Wallet for digital goods when buying digital merchandise.
Viewpoint: Must-Have Features to Drive M-Banking Adoption and Usage
Consumers who use digital channels for their banking conduct more transactions per month than those who don’t but are less expensive to service. Maximize your m-banking adoption and usage with features that move the needle.
Square’s New Reader Accepts EMV Chip Cards (Nov. 12, 2014)
Square, considered by many to be a trailblazer in the arena of mobile card readers that plug into smartphones, today has announced the San Francisco-based company is accepting pre-orders from U.S. merchants on a new Square reader that accepts EMV chip cards.
Skrill, Microsoft Expand Access to E-Commerce in Africa (Nov. 11, 2014)
Skrill, provider of online payment technologies to merchants and consumers, and Microsoft4Afrika, an initiative launched last year to help accelerate Africa’s economic development and to improve its global competitiveness, together are launching an e-commerce portal enabling Africans to use their mobile wallets to buy from global Internet brands, access free educational content and use Microsoft software.
Amex, Brooklyn Nets Testing M-Payments at Basketball Games (Nov. 10, 2014)
Brooklyn Nets basketball fans can use their smartphones to purchase refreshments at the Barclays Center as part of a pilot program for the Brooklyn eWallet by American Express, the Barclays Center and the Nets.
Fiserv Unveils the NOW Network (Nov. 10, 2014)
As payment options multiply, Fiserv Inc. wants financial institutions to be able to serve their customers no matter how or when they want to pay.
Payment Execs: Consumers Aren’t Compelled Yet to Change How They Pay (Nov. 10, 2014)
One of the biggest obstacles to consumer adoption of NFC- and EMV-enabled mobile payments over the next 12 months is the lack of a compelling enough reason for consumers to change how they pay, according to a recent survey of payment executives.
CARTES Paris Showcases Payments Industry’s Diversification (Nov. 6, 2014)
Attendees at the 29th gathering of CARTES concluding today in Paris noticed the event’s growing emphasis on mobile payments, as well as another striking feature of the show—drawing 20,000 attendees from 140 countries—is the diversity of products and business models mobile payments support.
Banks should go digital says Monitise
The time is right for a new breed of digital-only banks to enter the market and steal away share from the established players, according to a new report by Monitise.
Money20/20: Biometrics Gets Apple Pay Boost; Is Cloud Storage Next? (Nov. 5, 2014)
Apple Pay’s potential to change the game for NFC payments has been one of the dominant themes at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas this week. But the service—which uses the iPhone’s TouchID fingerprint sensor to validate users—also represents a major milestone for biometric authentication.
Don’t neglect social media and tablets, banks warned
Banks will be judged on how well they provide mobile services and social media interaction in the coming years. Instead of being just another channel, these forms will be the first point of contact for customers, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
Money 20/20: Visa’s McInerney on Personalizing the Buying Experience with Mobile (Nov. 4, 2014)
When one thinks of cutting-edge mobile commerce, a butcher shop in the 1980s isn’t likely the first image that comes to mind. But that was the connection made by Visa Inc. President Ryan McInerney, to illustrate what he views as one of the key ways in which mobile has the power to transform commerce—namely, by bringing personalization back to the shopping experience.
Apple Pay a Hot Topic at CARTES (Nov. 4, 2014)
Apple Pay’s rollout was a top theme for payments executives speaking today during the kickoff conference session of CARTES in Paris.
CPI Card Group Enables Banks to Participate in Any Wallet; Launches EMV Prepaid Card in Canada (Nov. 3, 2014)
CPI Card Group launches a mobile platform that enables NFC payments using the secure element or host card emulation. The Littleton, Colo.-based card manufacturer also announced its first EMV prepaid cards in Canada.
Softcard Users Can Pay at McDonald’s Restaurant, Drive-Thru (Nov. 3, 2014)
Softcard announced a deal with QSR giant McDonald’s that adds 14,000 more U.S. locations to the mobile wallet’s acceptance network.
