The Bermudan Monetary Authority (BMA) is reminding the public that the legacy, horizontal Bermuda banknotes will no longer be legal tender after 31st December 2013. A press release issued by the Bermuda Monetary Authority included an explanation from Shanna Lespere, Director of Operations: “Back in June, the Authority announced that the legacy banknote series will…
The UK’s Transport for London (TFL) has announced that the use of contactless credit, debit or charge cards will be available on the tube, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), trams and London Overground rail services by early 2014. The payment cards will be used in the same way as the current Oyster card system, where users hold…
On Saturday 30 November 2013, East African Community leaders signed the Monetary Union Protocol, with the intention to have a single currency in 10 years’ time. The signing ceremony, held in Uganda, was witnessed by Members of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA), diplomats and high ranking government officials of member states. Kenya’s President Uhuru…
A local news agency (Jiji Press) has reported that Japan’s Ministry of Finance has launched a promotion campaign to attract orders to print foreign banknotes. The National Printing Bureau (NPB), Tokyo, is highlighting Japan’s “cutting-edge anti-counterfeit technologies” in the hope of attracting orders. They will also offer passport printing services in addition to the current…
The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned that mobile payment technology currently used by smartphone operating systems represent a security risk as customers increasingly adopt mobile payments for their day to day purchases. As previously reported, mobile phone payments are growing rapidly as smartphone technology becomes more widely available and as consumer trust in the…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is reportedly considering a move from polymer banknotes back to traditional paper. Low denominations banknotes have been issued with a polymer substrate – the N5, N10, N20 and N50 – since 2006 after the CBN signed a deal with Australia’s Securency International to print low value, high circulation Naira banknotes…
Bitcoin, the world’s first free market, decentralised global currency, has surpassed US$1,000 (£613) for the first time according to MTGox, one of the virtual currency’s main exchanges. Bitcoin has seen fast growth since its introduction in 2008, allowing users the ability to make payments from person to person anonymously. This has caused some criticism, with…
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that a new Europa series €10 banknote will be unveiled on January 13, 2014 and issued later in the year. The Partnership Program, held by the ECB and the national Central Banks (NCB) in the Euro area on November 26, 2013, aimed to help banknote equipment manufacturers and suppliers,…
Today sees the launch of a new online payment system from Visa. It allows consumers to make online payments “simply and securely”. At a time where online purchases are rapidly increasing, businesses are realising how important it is to make things easy for their customers. The use of smartphones and electronic tablets has been a…
In a paper published in September by the Department of Computing, University of Surrey, UK, researchers demonstrated how contactless payments could be interferred with, effectively “eavesdropping” on the payment systems which use Near Field Communication (NFC) / Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to transfer payment data. With the required technology being increasingly made available, be…