The National Bank of Ukraine is to consider the legal status and regulation of digital currencies such as Bitcoin by the end of August 2017. The Central Bank has issued a press release confirming that the issue of regulating digital currencies will be considered at the next meeting of its Financial Stability Board, to be held by the end of…
Visa Inc. has announced a new initiative called The Visa Cashless Challenge, encouraging US small businesses to stop using cash by offering thousands of dollars in reward. The Visa Cashless Challenge invites small US-based food service businesses such as restaurants, cafes or food truck owners to describe “what cashless means for them, their employees and customers”. If…
The Central Bank of South Korea plans to remove coins from circulation by 2020, in efforts to become a cashless society. According to local reports, The Central Bank of South Korea announced on 1 December 2016 that it plans to abandon coins by 2020 to encourage the use of cashless payments. It is encouraging citizens to…
FitBit Inc, the fitness tracking company which has exploded into the fitness technology market, has acquired wearable payments assets of electronics and financial technology company, Coin Inc. FitBit Inc. is a provider of stylish wearable physical activity trackers, namely FitBit trackers, allowing users to monitor their activity and sleep patterns with the aim of promoting a healthier lifestyle.…
Android Pay, the mobile payment solution from Google, has launched in the United Kingdom. The UK is the second country to offer Android Pay, following its initial launch in the United States in September last year. Android Pay users Over 60% of the UK’s smartphone users own an Android handset. Those running Android 4.4 or higher and fitted with…
The Royal Mint has issued a statement saying that coins are here to stay, in response to a report by the Co-op which has predicted the “death of cash and bankcards”. Though the Co-op identifies that nearly two thirds of all transactions made within its retail stores are paid for using cash, it has seen the use…
Google has announced that Android Pay will be available in the UK “in the next few months”. Currently, it is only available in the US since its launch last September. A Google spokesperson said it was “likely” that the UK would be either the second or third country of operation, with Australia being identified as another country…
Sveriges Riksbank, the Central Bank of Sweden, has served a notice to the Swedish parliament calling for access to cash to be a legal right. The notice, which was submitted to the country’s Ministry of Finance on the 16 March 2016, asks for the nation’s banks to provide a cash service to ensure access to accounts…
The adoption of mobile payment solutions has, certainly in the last two years, been massive. With the launch of mobile wallets from key industry players such as Apple and Google, there has also been an influx of solutions from much smaller companies, with reports of new mobile wallet systems being released around the world as a daily event.…
Google has today released an app which is being piloted by users, allowing them to make in-store payments without handling either their wallet or smartphone. The app was first announced in May last year during Google’s I/O developer conference. The limited public pilot, which is being tested in a number of retail stores and restaurants in San…