As Host Card Emulation (HCE) gains momentum and questions continue about whether mass acceptance of NFC technology will ever come, the NFC Forum has issued a position statement on HCE, which emulates an NFC card in the cloud, eliminating the need for a secure element and trusted service manager for NFC applications, such as payments.
Mobility has risen to such a level of importance that many people believe it deserves its own C-level position to advance and align mobility strategy throughout the enterprise. In no other industry is this more pressing than in banking where financial institutions are increasingly using mobile apps to set themselves apart from their rivals.
Google Wallet is making another course-correction to keep up with fast-moving mobile payments technology.
Western Union is continuing its global expansion in mobile payments, announcing a new mobile money transfer service for Nigeria.
Mobile payments with a flick of the wrist are here.
Holders of contactless Visa cards in the U.K. made 94.3 million contactless purchases in 2013, a surge from the 25 million made in 2012, according to data from Visa Europe.
China’s central bank last week released draft rules that would limit the use of third-party payment systems, including the payment operations of Alibaba Holding Group and Tencent Holdings Inc.
Minneapolis-based remote deposit capture (RDC) specialist Cachet Financial Solutions has made a major move into the mobile wallet arena, acquiring the moneto mobile payment platform from DeviceFidelity Inc.
McDonald’s Sweden has integrated the SEQR payment service of Stockholm-based software development company Seamless into its own mobile app, enabling customers of the QSR to pay with SEQR.
Prepaid products now have a proven track record in many major European countries, where the industry has begun the process of transitioning from its adolescent phase into one of mature, stable growth.
Many Chicago drivers soon won’t have to dig under the seat for spare change to feed the meter. The city has announced a new initiative to launch a mobile payment system for parking, set for a pilot run in the downtown area this spring, with a rollout throughout Chicago to follow.
Vodafone’s NFC-based mobile wallet and prepaid Vodafone SmartPass Visa account went live this month in Germany, enabling Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica Deutschland mobile network subscribers to conduct contactless and P2P transactions with NFC-ready phones via participating banks.
EMVCo today has released its tokenization specification, and is inviting all payments industry participants to provide feedback.
MasterCard plans to roll out its MasterPass mobile wallet platform to the United Arab Emirates later this year.
Four months after the nationwide rollout of the Isis mobile wallet, two-thirds of Isis users have installed at least one payment card on the wallet, and those users make an average of six to seven NFC-based transactions with Isis each month.
Mobile payment isn’t about reinventing the wheel – it’s about making merchants and customers’ lives better by establishing a relationship built on knowledge and trust, according to mobile payments platform Znap.
MasterCard has partnered with mobile technology specialist Syniverse under an audacious plan that aims at nothing less than “bringing mobile financial services to every single mobile user on the planet”.
Owners of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone soon will be able to make in-store payments via their PayPal accounts by just lifting—or rather, swiping—a finger.
Spanish financial services group BBVA has announced it is acquiring Paybefore Award-winning Simple, the Portland-Ore.-based digital banking company founded in 2009, for $117 million.
When upgraded public transit fare-payment systems went live recently in Chicago and Salt Lake City, contactless payment transactions soared into the millions.
MasterCard has entered into an agreement to acquire Chicago-based mobile payment technology provider C-SAM.
Amazon has announced that customers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany now can use the e-retail giant’s Amazon Coins in-app currency on all Android-based smartphones and tablets.
What do taxis, the weather, mobile wallets and raincoats have in common? They are all potential variables in determining a person’s daily spend – and they provide a great opportunity for banks to use data to save customers money, according to Aman Narain, global head of digital banking Singapore at Standard Chartered.
Google has acquired Israeli startup SlickLogin, which has developed technology that uses high-frequency sound waves to authenticate user identity when logging into Websites.
As we move to digitize everything, the transition to digital wallets hasn’t been an easy feat. O2 recently announced it would discontinue its mobile wallet and despite efforts by industry heavyweights, mass adoption of a digital/mobile wallet still is proving elusive.
Visa and MasterCard today announced plans to support Host Card Emulation, which enables storage of card credentials in the cloud, rather than using the secure element embedded in handsets, a move observers say could reignite prospects for NFC.
Mobile network operator Orange is launching its Paybefore Award-winning Orange Cash prepaid MasterCard in Spain.
U.S. Bancorp and U.K.-based Monitise plc have partnered to launch a white-label mobile commerce platform dubbed Peri.
The Reserve Bank of India continues to encourage development of mobile banking across its nation, where 870 million consumers have a mobile handset but fewer than half of those have bank accounts.
Canadians are in a hurry to get rid of their cash – at least as a method of payment, nor are they content with the contactless tap-and-go cards currently in use; they are anxious to replace cards with contactless smartphone technology, writes Aaron Rosland, senior economic counsellor for the Government of Ontario, Canada.
Amazon this month updated its iOS shopping app with a new feature called Flow, which could add rocket fuel to the “showrooming” phenomenon already affecting brick-and-mortar retailers.
MasterCard has launched its MasterPass online shopping service in Spain, the payment card network said this week.
Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the Coppell, Texas-based, retailer-led mobile payment consortium founded in 2012, is adding Paydiant’s cloud-based platform to its mobile commerce infrastructure.
Online payment provider Payza has begun offering its platform directly to money service companies, officially launching its strategic partnership phase, first announced at the end of 2013.
Vodafone has inked a deal with MoneyGram that will enable anyone to send funds via MoneyGram’s 334,000 agents worldwide to users of Vodafone’s popular M-Pesa mobile payment service.
Hot on the heels of a fresh infusion of capital, PayNearMe, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based cash transaction network, last week announced a deal with Family Dollar, enabling consumers to use cash for online purchases, payments toward loans and rent, among other transactions, at the discount retailer’s more than 8,000 locations.
Concerns are emerging over the failure of some mobile banking providers to address security risks. According to a recent review of 40 home banking apps from the world’s top 60 banks, nine out of ten apps had serious security vulnerabilities.
Isis, the NFC-based mobile payment initiative backed by the nation’s major wireless carriers, has hit a few key milestones recently that will go a long way toward building the scale vital to the effort’s success.
MasterCard has joined forces with Weve, the mobile payments joint venture from the U.K.’s three largest mobile telecom providers, to accelerate adoption of NFC mobile payments.
From smartwatches to voice-recognition capabilities, 2014 promises to be mobile’s best year yet. And these and other mobile trends will influence payments and financial services innovation.
