LiteLink is launching a new digital wallet designed for customers without a bank account. Developed by the LiteLink subsidiary uBUCK Technologies, the new payment app is called uBUCK Pay and is scheduled to begin its closed beta in June 2019. uBUCK Pay is built on the Waves blockchain, and has a few features that are…
The Apple Pay network continues to expand. The tech giant has announced that its biometrically secured mobile wallet platform is now available in Iceland, launching with support from the Icelandic banks Arion Banki and Landsbankinn. More banks are expected to add support for the platform in the not-too-distant future. To use Apple Pay, Arion Banki…
The Kuwait Financial House (KFH) will be offering laser-engraved, one-of-a-kind metal payment cards to a select group of elite clients. The cards will be produced by IDEMIA, and have been designed with an eye towards status as much as security. In other words, the metal cards will only be given to KFH customers with a…
Public Transit Victoria (PTV) has integrated NXP’s MIFARE 2GO to create a mobile version of its myki transit cards. MIFARE 2GO is a cloud-based Android platform that will allow Australian commuters in Melbourne and the surrounding area to forego physical tickets and ride the bus, train, or tram after purchasing a fare with Google Pay. …
“A titanium physical card will also be available for shopping in stores, but the card won’t feature a card number, CVV, signature, or even an expiry date – all of that information will need to be accessed from the iPhone.” The rumors were true: Among its other announcements this week, Apple has unveiled a new…
The growth of mobile wallets doesn’t look like it’s likely to slow down anytime soon. That’s according to new research from Germany’s yStats.com, which indicates that the usage rates for Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay will continue to rise through 2020. Apple Pay was the most popular of the three, and is expected…
Apple’s biometrically secured digital payments platform continues to attract new users, according to a new analysis from Loup Ventures. The venture capital firm had estimated in August of last year that Apple Pay had attained 31 percent of active iPhone users; now, after assessing data points from Apple’s December 18th earnings call, the firm says…
Money is going mobile in a big way, suggests a new report issued by the GSMA on the occasion of this year’s Mobile World Congress. Among the notable findings in the mobile alliance’s new “State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money” is the news that at the end of 2018, there were over 866…
Romania is getting its first biometric payment system thanks to a new partnership between Wirecard and Oney Bank. The two organizations will collaborate on Well.com, a mobile app that will allow customers to use their fingerprints or a QR code to authorize payments in Auchan Retail stores throughout the country. “Payment methods are continuously improving…
“The window of opportunity in the US for mobile payment providers like Apple Pay and Google Pay is closing fast,” writes Juniper Research in a new report on the mPayments market. Assessing the results of a survey of over a thousand smartphone users across the US and the UK, Juniper Research finds dismaying trends for…
“Based on the FitPay mobile payments platform, Garmin Pay allows users to upload their payment information so that they can make contactless, tap-to-pay purchases using their wristband devices.” Garmin Pay has a big new supporter: Discover has announced that its credit cards can now be used together with the wearables-focused mobile payments platform. The news…
Apple is not alone in gaining support for its mobile payments platform from Target: The major US retailer has announced that it’s also preparing to enable support for Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Apple announced its support yesterday, marking something of a breakthrough in its efforts to gain support among US merchants. Target was one…
More major US retailers have come onboard in supporting Apple Pay, its biometrically secured digital wallet. Apple has announced that support for its mobile payments platform will be in place at all 1,850 Target stores in the country “in the coming weeks,” according to a statement. And Apple Pay support has also been implemented at…
The Garmin Pay mobile payments system for wearables has further expanded, this time through a new version of the Vivoactive 3 Music smartwatch. The new wearable was announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. In its core specs, it’s pretty much the same as the last version of the device, able to store about 500…
“…the system will use biometric authentication to confirm the payments, with Visa and SiriusXM suggesting in a statement that they’re consider the use of voice recognition and fingerprint scanning through the dashboard’s touchscreen.” SiriusXM is getting into the payments business, with a Visa partnership aimed at delivering in-car payments to consumers. Thanks to the companies’…
Biometric technology from Toronto-based Applied Recognition is now being used to verify individuals signing up for SmartPay, a mobile-based financial services platform operating in Vietnam. The integration of Applied Recognition’s Ver-ID facial recognition technology means that end users can confirm their identities simply by submitting a selfie photo through the platform. At the same time,…
“The French launch of Google Pay also comes after a major extension of its support in the US, with Google announcing in late summer that 111 additional banks and credit unions were supporting the platform.” Google’s mobile payments platform has finally arrived in France, long after its major rivals. Six banks and credit card companies – Boon,…
Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant will soon be able to buy and sell stocks via voice command. The functionality is currently being developed by DeepSearch, a Korea-based data analytics service whose platform is designed to deliver important information about publicly traded companies to end users. Accordingly, as the Korea Herald reports, the new Bixby capability will…
Switzerland’s Competition Commission, WEKO (for “Wettbewerbskommission”), has raided the offices of Credit Suisse, UBS, TWINT, and other domestic financial services providers in a probe concerning unfair business practices toward mobile payments platforms including Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. WEKO says it is investigating the possibility that these organizations have organized a boycott of the mobile…
