Banks in Ireland have agreed to increase the contactless transaction limit from €30 (US$32.17) to €50 (US$53.54) “to minimise the handling of cash amid Covid-19”, The Irish Times reports. The increase has been requested by Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, and is expected to take until 1 April to be fully in place. “Sources […]

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has increased the purchase limit for Atheer contactless domestic debit card transactions from SAR 100 (US$26.61) to SAR 300 (US$79.84), in a bid to reduce the spread of novel coronavirus. SAMA announced the plan on 18 March — and set a deadline of 20 March for the change to

Banks in the Netherlands are seeking to combat the spread of Covid-19 by increasing the maximum value of contactless transactions that a cardholder can make before needing to enter a PIN to €100 (US$107.07), up from the previous €50 (US$53.54). “The limit per payment is still €25 (US$26.77), above which you will be asked for

Royal Bank of Canada has added new features to its mobile app that make it quicker and easier for customers opening a new bank account at a branch to prove their identity. “The RBC Mobile App now uses artificial intelligence to check a client’s government-issued identification against the security features and characteristics of driver’s licences

Performance lifestyle brand Cole Haan is deploying NFC tags across its new Grandshop outlet in Santa Clara, California, to enable shoppers to find out more about the range of products available for sale. Located in the Westfield Valley Fair mall, the Grandshop is designed to appeal to young, urban professionals and “is strategically designed to

Airport hospitality group OTG is adopting Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, enabling passengers shopping at its CIBO Express Gourmet Markets at New York’s Newark and LaGuardia airports to more quickly make last-minute purchases. “Starting on 16 March at Newark Liberty’s Terminal C and followed later by additional stores at Newark Liberty and LaGuardia Airports, travellers

Barclays has become the first UK high street bank to leverage open banking APIs to enable its customers to use its mobile banking app to make payments from accounts they hold with other banks. “The new feature builds on the existing ability to view current, savings and credit card accounts held with other UK banks

Merchants in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania are to participate in the pilot of a new mobile POS (mPOS) service that enables contactless payments to be accepted on Android mobile devices “without the need for any additional hardware”. Mastercard has partnered with software-only mPOS startup Phos and Paynetics, an e-money institution with an EU-wide

UnionPay, Huawei and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have launched a mobile payments service that lets owners of Huawei and Honor NFC phones use a single mobile wallet app to pay at any merchant equipped to accept either contactless or QR code payments. “The dual payments function of UnionPay’s mobile payment products adds QR code-based