peachwire

The US Army is aiming to introduce a biometric identification and access control system at military facilities to replace its current smartcard-based Common Access Card (CAC) and reduce the risk of transmitting Covid-19 through the handling of physical cards. The Pandemic Entry and Automated Control Environment (PEACE) will enable personnel “to secure access to sensitive/classified […]

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed a smart bandage incorporating wireless sensors and an NFC tag that can monitor a patient’s temperature and skin strain level, apply pressure to help a wound heal and transmit data to healthcare providers via a smartphone app. The flexible adhesive bandage has been developed to assist with

The number of American consumers using their smartphone to make in-store mobile payments will reach 101.2 million in 2021 following a 29% increase in usage during 2020, according to an eMarketer forecast. It also predicts that the number of new mobile wallet users will rise by around 6.5 million per year between 2021 and 2025,

Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC). To use the digital currency, consumers first sign up to DCash via participating banks and

Consumers may soon be able to collect rewards at smart recycling points and kerbside collections for recycling plastic bottles and other reusable packaging fitted with NFC labels that uniquely identify each item. The NFC-enabled digital identification technology will work alongside conventional deposit return and recycling schemes with the aim of encouraging more consumers to recycle

Customers of all six state-owned Chinese banks can now apply for test versions of the banks’ digital yuan wallets as the country rolls out the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme in the city of Changsha. The expanded trials come as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) also clarifies its

The number of registered mobile money accounts globally grew by 13% in 2020 to reach a total of more than 1.2bn, according to research by the GSMA. The association’s State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money also shows that the monthly value of mobile money payments worldwide reached US$70bn in December 2020, with 29%

The Bank of Thailand and the State Bank of Vietnam have launched an interoperable cross-border payments system that will enable Thai visitors to Vietnam and Vietnamese visitors to Thailand to make QR code-based payments for goods and services using their mobile banking app. At launch the service will support transactions made in either country by

Consumers in Australia can now make payments for in-store purchases using a digital card issued by buy now, pay later (BNPL) service Afterpay that lets them automatically pay for their purchases in four equal instalments. To use the service, consumers download the digital Afterpay Card, add it to Apple Wallet or Google Pay on their