“As the payments industry reeled Monday morning during yet another wild session on Wall Street, card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. provided a glimmer of hopeful news when it reported improving financials thanks in part to growing sales of dual-interface cards. Littleton, Colo. based CPI said fourth-quarter sales in its U.S. credit and debit segment grew 24% year-over-year to $61.6 million. For all of 2019, segment sales grew 19% to $213.1 million.”

“A letter from a doctor that appeared in The Wall Street Journal Thursday warned not only against Covid-19, the coronavirus strain now spreading from country to country, but also against flu and other viruses. He advised that “the rapid implementation of contactless credit card devices … would be cost-effective and help to prevent the spread of many viral infections…””

“Discover is to begin issuing contactless payment cards “for most” of its Discover It and Discover More cardmembers “who need cards reissued or replaced” this month and, from December, will start issuing contactless cards to new Discover cardholders.”

“With card-based transit payments picking up steam in the United States, a key Mastercard Inc. executive said Thursday that 22% of the network’s physical-world transactions globally were contactless as of the end of 2018. The time to complete a contactless transaction is down to 0.4 seconds, added Ajay Bhalla, president for cyber and intelligence solutions, during a presentation for investors.”

“All Nissan vehicles manufactured in Brazil are to come factory-installed with Sem Parar RFID tags, enabling them to be used to make in-vehicle payments for electronic tolls, car parking, fuel and retail transactions — including at McDonald’s drive-thrus across the country. Used vehicles sold by Nissan dealerships will also be retrofitted with Sem Parar’s RFID payments solution.”

“Flip allows consumers to make purchases at millions of retail locations that accept contactless payments. Accompanying the physical Flip is Fit Pay’s digital wallet, which enables consumers to store and manage funds transferred from standard bank accounts, supported Bitcoin wallets and more. Similar in size to a poker chip, Flip gives contactless payment power to consumers in an imaginatively compact and convenient form.”

“MTA’s recent launch of OMNY ¹ and initiatives from several large financial institutions to offer contactless cards are evidence of the growth of contactless adoption in the U.S. As more opportunities arise to tap to make a payment, clear communication at the point of sale (POS) is needed to indicate that contactless cards and devices are accepted. The U.S. Payments Forum is helping issuers and merchants to improve this experience at the POS with a new resource describing best practices for contactless acceptance. The white paper, “Consumer Experience at the Contactless Point of Sale” can be downloaded at https://www.uspaymentsforum.org/consumer-experience-at-the-contactless-point-of-sale/ .”

“Bank of America Corp. is joining the wave of companies issuing tap-to-pay cards.    The lender will send 4 million contactless cards this month to customers in New York, Boston and San Francisco who have Visa debit or credit cards, according to Mark Monaco, enterprise payments executive at Bank of America. It plans to measure usage in those markets before deciding on a broader rollout at the beginning of next year, he said.”

To help foster adoption of contactless payments in the MTA and beyond, beginning in July, all newly issued and replacement U.S. American Express Consumer Cards will be contactless. The contactless feature is now available on all U.S. American Express Consumer Cards upon request through AmericanExpress.com, the Amex Mobile App, or by phone.

“Two powerful forces for making contactless cards a routine feature of daily life are acceptance by mass-transit systems and backing from the biggest issuers. On Wednesday, that combination came into focus with an announcement from Visa Inc. that starting May 31 users of the 20 million contactless credit cards JPMorgan Chase & Co. has pumped out so far will be able to use them to tap and pay for fares on New York City’s subway lines and bus routes.”

“The authors say that confusion reigns among merchants, with some concerned about losing control of the payment experience when they activate contactless payments in their stores since contactless technology extends acceptance to all NFC mobile wallets by default. Consumers meanwhile are confused due to poor marketing and messaging around contactless and NFC mobile wallets.”

“The conditions for the widespread adoption of contactless payments using chip cards are in place, asserts a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. But when that will happen and what will trigger it are unknown in the Fed report, “Tap to Pay: Will Contactless Cards Pave the Way for NFC Mobile Payments in the U.S.?” released this week.”

“Customers in most Finnish banks can now use their bank cards to make contactless payments up to €50. The previous limit was €25. Banks that are introducing the new upper payment limit include OP, Nordea, Danske, S-Bank, Oma Säästöpankki, POP Bank, Handelsbanken and Savings Banks. Aktia and the Bank of Åland will introduce the new €50 limit later in the spring.”

“A dress shirt which incorporates contactless payment technology in the cuff is set to go on sale this summer. The Cash Cuff shirt, developed by Cambridge-based DressCode , uses Mastercard-accredited wearable payments technology from K Wearables to link a smartphone app with a contactless payments module sewn into the shirt.”

“With Americans averaging over 10 billion trips on public transportation annually, transit agencies are looking to create streamlined experiences with new technologies such as contactless open payments. To address this growing interest, the U.S. Payments Forum is hosting a webinar focused on the acceptance of contactless EMV chip cards and NFC-enabled mobile devices at transit points of entry.”

“This week, new Wells Fargo consumer credit cardholders began receiving cards with the contactless feature when opening an account, and existing Wells Fargo consumer credit cardholders will receive a new contactless card when their current credit card expires. Consumer debit cards with the contactless feature will start to become available this summer. The bank, which is the industry’s #1 debit card issuer by purchase and transaction volume1, will start issuing newly redesigned consumer debit cards with the contactless feature to new cardholders and those who are in need of a replacement card.”

“With Apple Pay, Apple has done as much as anyone to popularize contactless payments in the U.S. Despite this, it seems that the new physical titanium Apple Card won’t offer contactless payments when used in stores that don’t accept Apple Pay (or anywhere else for that matter). At least, that’s according to a spokesperson from MasterCard.”

“Two in five card payments are made using contactless technology as consumers appear to have cast aside any doubts of paying without a Pin. The number of transactions using contactless rose 31% in 2018 compared with the previous year, banking trade body UK Finance data shows. Adoption of this technology on public transport and by more retailers has led, in part, to the rise. The contactless payment limit, before entering a four-digit Pin, is £30.”

“NatWest Bank is to run a trial of fingerprint-on-card authentication allowing a cardholder to make contactless payments above the current level of £30. This increases security and makes it easier for customers when paying for goods or services since they will not need to enter a PIN, according to the UK bank. Some 200 customers are to take part in the upcoming test, which is being run in association with Visa, Mastercard and digital security company Gemalto.”