August 2020

The Lowry Hotel in Manchester, UK, is piloting a graphene-based contactless payment system that enables restaurant customers to pay their bill by tapping their smartphone on a till receipt imprinted with an electronic antenna. The technology allows customers to tap the smart till receipt to bring up the bill on their smartphone browser and then

Asia is leading the way in the use and development of digital currencies and remains the world’s largest digital payments market, with China alone accounting for more than half of the total transaction value worldwide, according to a new research paper published by Singapore’s DBS Bank. ‘Digital Currencies: Public and Private, Present and Future’ examines

Dutch bank ING and supermarket giant Albert Heijn are to pilot a tokenized payments service which enables customers to pay for online purchases from their bank accounts without needing to provide retailers with account credentials. “The tokenization process replaces sensitive data (a customer’s bank details) with non-sensitive data (a string of random numbers known as

Transactions conducted by customers using Korean bank DGB Daegu’s IM Bank mobile banking app on a Samsung Galaxy A Quantum 5G smartphone will soon be secured with 5G quantum cryptography technology that generates true random numbers to encrypt one-time passwords and identity verification information. The app will be integrated with mobile network operator SK Telecom’s

Countries with digitised and innovative economies are more likely to be developing central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects while those with a larger informal economy are tending to focus on creating retail CBDCs, a working paper published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reports. ‘Rise of the central bank digital currencies: drivers, approaches and

The Banco Central do Brasil has formed a study group to evaluate the benefits and challenges of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country. The 12-member intergovernmental group will assess how a CBDC could complement Brazil’s existing payments ecosystem and evaluate its potential economic and social impact. It will also identify security

Public transport users in the Canadian city of Saskatoon will soon be able to plan their journeys, get real-time updates, pay their fares and connect their bus journeys to complementary door-to-destination transport options in a single app that combines mobile ticketing with Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). The new Saskatoon Transit mobile app will allow passengers to pay

Indian telecommunications giant Reliance Jio has begun piloting Jio Pay, a new UPI-enabled payments service which includes support for both NFC and QR mobile payments. Jio Pay supports all the features of the National Payment Corporation of India’s united payments interface (UPI) real-time payment system, including transfer service Pay Through VPA (Virtual Payment Address) and

Spanish banking group BBVA is to pilot a service which will enable merchants to accept contactless payments on their Android smartphones without the need of additional hardware. The proof of concept pilot will integrate fintech company Rubean’s PhonePOS solution into the merchant apps of up to 2,000 of BBVA’s merchant clients in Spain, allowing them