NFC TimesThe premier source for news, analysis and commentary on
Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Israel-based On Track Innovations has announced a partnership with an undisclosed global provider of magnetic card readers whose products are used in financial self-service terminals, such as ATMs, but the deal has not yet had a substantial impact on OTI's share price, which is trading near historic lows.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – France-based Gemalto, which has been heavily invested in trusted service management and NFC SIM cards in the past, is continuing to push cloud-based payments, announcing certification by MasterCard for its full host card emulation offer–with the help of technology from Moroccan-based payments software company HPS.

NFC Times Exclusive – More than two-thirds of users of the ING Bank’s HCE-based mobile payments service in the Netherlands opt for no PIN entry and prefer to tap their phones for very low-value amounts, according to bank, which launched one of the first HCE mobile payments services in Western Europe in late November. 

NFC Times Exclusive – While 2015 was arguably the year that saw the most important rollouts yet of NFC technology, led by Apple Pay, 2015, like past years, was mar

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Apple has announced overdue plans to launch Apple Pay in China early next year, touting a list of 15 major banks that will enable customers to load their credit and debit cards in its Wallet app, including China’s big four state-owned banks. Meanwhile, Samsung followed with an announcement of its planned launch of Samsung Pay in China, which was also expected.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Even as major Chinese banks and payment network China UnionPay prepare to participate in what is expected to be the launch of Apple Pay in China in the first quarter, they are expanding their Android-based mobile-payments services using host card emulation.

NFC Times Exclusive – There’s more evidence that Apple is gearing up to launch Apple Pay in China early next year, and not only with China’s big four state-run banks, as was earlier reported.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – ANZ New Zealand has made good on its pledge to commercially launch host card emulation-based payments from its mobile-banking app, goMoney, before the end of this year, planning to begin enabling customers with eligible Android phones to tap to pay starting tomorrow, but only with Visa-branded credit or debit cards, for now.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Despite other large banks outside of the U.S. using their own tokenization for early commercial launches of mobile payments with host card emulation, Singapore’s United Overseas Bank told NFC Times it decided to go with tokenization from Visa and soon from MasterCard for its new HCE-based service.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Australia’s largest domestic debit network, eftpos, told NFC Times the network’s planned tokenization service would launch on time and contends the service would not struggle against Visa and MasterCard if those major networks launched their “free” tokenization services in Australia.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – The new leadership at U.S-based Identiv focused primarily on its premises and identity products, particularly its new partnerships with Cisco, and mentioned its transponder business only briefly, without direct reference to NFC, in its most recent earnings call.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Three months after new CEO Shlomi Cohen took the reins, Israel-based NFC and contactless vendor On Track Innovations reported a 31% sequential drop in revenue and a continued slump in contactless point-of-sale reader sales for the third quarter.