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Visa “Tap to Phone” Adoption Grows Rapidly

March 3, 2025 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Visa’s fast-growing, contactless payment solution Tap to Phone helps SMBs get paid, with nearly 30% of sellers popping up as new small businesses

Tap. Pay. Done. This simple, secure, and increasingly mobile action has transformed the shopping experience and unlocked opportunities for small businesses worldwide. Today, Visa announced that Tap to Phone has experienced a 200% increase over the past year, supporting millions of sellers of all sizes. In the highest Tap to Phone countries – the U.S., UK, and Brazil – adoption rates have surged, showing a combined growth rate of 234%1.

Tap to Phone expanded Visa’s tap capabilities with a technology that turns a smartphone into a point-of-sale (POS) device, simply by downloading an app. With nearly 30% of Tap sellers being new small businesses2, this technology is helping to democratize access to commerce tools and empower microsellers and SMBs around the world to start accepting contactless payments by using their NFC-enabled smartphones.

“Tap to Phone is a tech equalizer for businesses. Walk into some of the world’s largest retailers or go to your local farmer’s market and they’re using this same technology to accept payments right on their phone,” said Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Consumer Products, Visa. “People love to tap, so we’re continuing to expand our tap capabilities to create the best payments experiences for people and businesses.”

Empowering SMBs and Microsellers Worldwide

Whether a merchant is popping up at a local market or a major retailer equips employees to assist customers on the floor, Tap to Phone helps businesses of all sizes easily accept payments. Small business owners say Tap to Phone gives them more confidence, makes their operation feel more sophisticated, and helps them grow their businesses.

Ariel Davis, owner of The Brooklyn Teacup, an upcycling business in New York that gives new life to vintage china, says Tap to Phone technology helped her pivot to open an in-person studio for customers. Notably absent from her compact space: a desk, computer setup or register.

“You don’t typically couple vintage china and innovation, but in some ways, I feel like a tech startup because we’re always trying to figure out what’s going to make this experience the best for our customers and the latest technology that will take us there,” said Davis.

Lucas Avelino, owner of the Santa Felicidade restaurant in Brazil, echoes this sentiment: “Adding Tap to Phone capabilities creates a good and fast payment experience for our clients. It brings a sense of technology and innovation to my restaurant.”

In the UK, Reuthe’s evolved from an old woodland nursery into a thriving event space. Under its current ownership, the farm expanded its offerings to include live music events and food festivals. One challenge with the new use of space became clear: how to process payments efficiently across the sprawling 11-acre site. Previously, transactions were limited to fixed payment points, but now by adopting Tap to Phone, the farm has been able to turn every staff member’s phone into a payment terminal.

“We expect overall business growth of 20% this year and Tap to Phone will play a huge role in that,” said Simon Young, Events Manager and Café Owner, Reuthe’s. “It’s transformed the customer experience too, cutting queue times and making purchases effortless. For any small business looking to boost sales and simplify payments, this technology is a no-brainer.”

The Future of Tap

This upward trend for Tap to Phone is expected to continue through the next year as more consumers and businesses may begin to recognize the benefits of tap technology and more use cases may hit the market.

For example, Tap to Add Card enables users to add eligible credit or debit cards to their digital wallet by simply tapping a card to their phone. Since Tap to Add Card rolled out globally with Apple Pay in September 2024, it has picked up traction and enabled millions of tokens for more than 100 issuers, helping achieve higher authorization rates and fraud reduction rates. Visa cardholders can add their Visa cards to Apple Wallet faster than ever, with no need to manually input card details.

Visa has also developed Tap to Confirm, which allows consumers to quickly and securely authenticate a high value transfer and Tap to Send and Request money, a feature that allows you to tap your physical card or card credential to a device wallet on a friend’s phone to securely send and receive money quickly and seamlessly. Tap to Send will be available later this year on Samsung Galaxy devices as “Tap to Transfer.”

_____________________________
1 VisaNet FY23-FY24
2 VisaNet FY23-FY24

Source: Business Wire

Filed Under: News

Is Your Business PCI Compliant?

November 1, 2016 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance is a group of practices that govern data security across credit and debit card payments. Businesses must comply with the requirements outlined by the PCI Security Standards Council in order for their merchant account to stay in good standing.

Every business that accepts credit/debit cards must abide by these PCI standards, no matter what processing method they use. BluePay has compiled a simple guide answering some frequently asked questions as well as debunking a couple myths about PCI compliance.


PCI Compliance created by BluePay

Filed Under: News Tagged With: BluePay, PCI Compliance

Nets and Oberthur Technologies Offer Mobile Payments to Scandinavian Banks

October 6, 2016 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Nets, a payments service provider in Northern Europe, and OT (Oberthur Technologies), a global provider of embedded security software products, services and solutions, are partnering to service banks with a financial platform to support future international mobile payment means in the Nordics. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Eric Duforest, Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, NETS, Oberthur Technologies, Scandinavia

Kohl’s to Launch Mobile Payments

October 5, 2016 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) announced today the nationwide launch of Kohl’s Pay, a mobile payment option which integrates the Kohl’s Charge private label credit card into Kohl’s mobile app. Kohl’s Pay allows more than 25 million active card holders across the country to pay for their in-store purchases with their Kohl’s Charge card directly from their mobile device. Kohl’s Pay also its customers to apply their Kohl’s offers, Kohl’s Cash and Yes2You Rewards with a single transaction right from the mobile device at checkout.

“Kohl’s Pay truly redefines convenience for our loyal Kohl’s Charge customers by simplifying the checkout and payment experience – making it easier than ever to shop in store this holiday season,” said Ratnakar Lavu, Kohl’s chief technology officer. “We’re combining value and convenience by bringing together the incredible savings opportunities that our customers love like Kohl’s Cash and our Yes2You Rewards loyalty program with the ability to pay with a Kohl’s Charge, all from your mobile device.”

Integrated Commerce Experience

With Kohl’s Pay, savings opportunities are organically built into the experience, allowing customers to automatically redeem offers, Kohl’s Cash and Yes2You Rewards that are saved in their mobile wallet and pay for their purchases with their Kohl’s Charge in one transaction. Additionally, every Kohl’s Pay transaction is stored on customers’ mobile devices allowing them the opportunity to easily make a return or an exchange right from the Kohl’s App.

How It Works

To use Kohl’s Pay in store, Kohl’s customers save their Kohl’s Charge information to Kohl’s Pay within the Kohl’s App on their iOS or Android device. To pay for their purchase at checkout, customers can launch the Kohl’s App and select Kohl’s Pay from the menu options to bring up the Kohl’s Pay QR code reader. Once a QR code appears on the customer display at point of sale, customers can scan the code using their mobile device, apply their savings offers and Kohl’s Cash then tap approve to complete their transaction using Kohl’s Pay.

Source: Business Wire

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Kohl's, Mobile Payment, Ratnakar Lavu

Apple in Talks with Banks to Develop Mobile Person-to-Person Payment Service – Update – NASDAQ.com

November 12, 2015 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Apple Inc. is in discussions with U.S. banks to develop a mobile person-to-person payment service that would compete with PayPal Inc.’s popular Venmo platform, according to people familiar with the talks.

The talks are ongoing, and it is unclear if any of the banks have struck an agreement with Apple, these people said. Key details remain in flux, including technical aspects that would determine how the service would tie into the banking industry’s existing infrastructure, they said.

Read more, via: Nasdaq

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Apple, Venmo

A Tale Of Two Investments: Blockchain Enjoys Best Of Times

November 12, 2015 by Mark Taylor

Bitcoin and blockchain may be heading for a messy divorce, as support, cash and industry sway for the ledger technology continue to prise it away from the crypto-currency which brought it into the mainstream.

Once inseparable, their paths have splintered into very different directions as the volatile crypto-currency is linked with pyramid schemes while the technology graces the covers of mainstream magazines.

The European Commission this week signalled its approval for ledger visionaries to continue tinkering.

A commission spokeswoman told BlockchainBriefing: “Innovation in financial markets is something the commission supports but there are no legislative developments in relation to blockchain at this stage.”

Brussels has never spoken of Bitcoin in terms of innovation or support.

Bitcoin: ‘On life support’

Indeed, it is on life support according to the boss of a major investment bank.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon made waves with recent comments that “my personal opinion; there will be no real, non-controlled currency in the world”.

“There is no government that’s going to put up with it for long … there will be no currency that gets around government controls,” he told Fortune.

Adding that the underlying technology, blockchain, would flourish, he said: “It may even be used to transport currency but it will be US dollars.”

Dimon’s firm is part of the now 25-strong blockchain initiative brought together by innovators R3.

It is collaborating with Deutsche Bank, Barclays, BBVA, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland, State Street, UBS and many more to create a global standard in blockchain technology.

None of the above appears interested in Bitcoin, other than UBS which is experimenting with a hybrid version of its own crypto-currency, very different from its decentralised forbearer.

Global anti-money laundering (AML) watchdogs are also pushing the message that exchanges, where the crypto-currency can enter the traditional financial system, will be regulated first.

R3 itself is very much “virtual currency agnostic”. It cares solely about the foundation technology, which carries a degree of risk, but nowhere near the controversy of Bitcoin.

Managing director Charley Cooper told BlockchainBriefing: “While it is true that distributed ledger technology grew out of the e-currency world, it is certainly in no way reliant on it and in many ways the underlying infrastructure has now far outgrown Bitcoin itself.

“The potential for this technology in financial markets is vast — we believe it is the catalyst to enable banks to enter a new frontier of technology, as they did in the mid to late-nineties with the adoption of the internet, delivering huge improvements in transparency, efficiency and risk.”

From rolled eyes to rolled sleeves

Regulatory uncertainty looms over the crypto-currency, and pressures in this area were cited as a factor in the swing in attention.

For others in the space, the almost limitless promise of what a ledger can do as an automated, speedy, irreversible, incorruptible record of transfer value, offers far more potential.

Daniel Tannebaum, director in auditing giant PricewaterhouseCooper’s financial crimes advisory practice and the leader of the global financial services sanctions practice, said that suspicion has been quickly replaced with opportunity.

“A lot of our clients are the global financial institutions, they are primarily concerned with what blockchain technology can do to disrupt their business, and they are trying to front run that by putting pilots into place along those lines,” he told BlockchainBriefing.

“For the custody business, it’s about how can we leverage blockchain to manage the custody of assets.

“I hear a lot about chain of custody, given I work with a lot of custodians, and initially their eyes would roll, now they are taking it seriously over what it will mean for business.

“Custodians are excited, they are looking at it as an efficiency play in a number of areas,” he said.

For Tannebaum, the industry is on the brink of a new dawn, similar to the introduction of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) or SWIFT networks.

The game-changing computer based networks allowed the processing of enormous volumes of payments across the globe, now totalling trillions of dollars a year.

ACH began life in 1974, pre-dating not only Bitcoin and the blockchain but the internet, smartphones, mobile and e-money.

Forty plus years of invention, globalisation, the evolution of banking and the payments space and huge leaps in technology, plus the emergence of non-traditional types into the space, has left it trailing.

Bank glitches are more frequent as out-dated systems crash under the weight of demand.

The new technology promises to end all that, to the tune of $20bn in savings a year.

“I think blockchain has staying power,” Tannebaum said.

“There are a number of companies springing up that are looking at these platform plays, and a number of banks really looking at integration seriously.

“I don’t think Bitcoin is dead yet but right now blockchain is what everyone is talking about,” said Daniel Tannebaum, leader of the global financial services sanctions practice at PwC.

“From a regulatory standpoint I think it is relatively straightforward, certainly nothing new if you are talking blockchain specifics.

“It’s just a different type of program that you have to build a control frame around, that is it.”

Financial services expert Margo Tank, a partner at BuckleySandler’s Washington, D.C. office, believes engaged and inquisitive lawmakers may be just what the space needs to aid growth.

“We have seen a wave of regulatory pressure sweep over the industry,” she said.

“However, it may be what is needed to get virtual currency, the blockchain and payments innovation to the next level.

“The Uniform Law Commission and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors are ones to watch closely in the US as they have shaped the way regulation is formed at the state level in the past and there is no reason to think they won’t be involved in the future.”

Education, education, education

Tannebaum’s point that regulators cannot be innovators comes from his own experience on both sides of the fence, believing legislators and law enforcement are not the enemy.

“The fact that they ask questions does not mean they are trying to stifle, it means they are trying to wrap their heads around it and I think there has been a lot of good private sector dialogue along those lines,” he said.

“What some companies have failed to realise is by pro-actively educating regulators and law enforcement you are ultimately making your own life a lot easier.”

“Treating them akin to how you are treating the guys who are backing your company is the right way of looking at it as they have a stake in this too, although not monetary it is an investment that can cost you money on the back end.”

He pointed to the emergence of blockchain advocacy and lobby groups seeking to engage.

Three have recently sprung up in Washington, D.C., joining the already well entrenched Electronic Transactions Association.

Their rise to prominence puts the fate of the very first crypto-currency lobbyists, the Bitcoin Foundation, into sharp focus.

The foundation, which was created in 2012, is “effectively bankrupt”, according to one board member, with former vice chairman Charlie Shrem jailed for his part in a major criminal enterprise linked to Bitcoin.

With Wall Street, stock exchanges, investment circles, corporate giants and governments all in blockchain’s corner, the split may actually be cleaner and faster than anyone expected.

Tannebaum certainly believes so: “For something so new that has that perception in the regulatory community, the banks banding together behind it show they are looking to come up with common ground rules makes a lot of sense, and that is what you need to do to ensure survival.”

About the author

Mark TaylorMark Taylor is a News Editor for PaymentsCompliance and BlockchainBriefing.

Mark’s regulatory coverage of the payments industry touches on a wide variety of subjects from cryptocurrency, international sanctions and anti-money laundering laws to innovation and emerging markets. He has been part of three award-winning editorial teams in regional newspapers across the UK, holding positions of political, business, transport, crime correspondent and assistant digital editor during that time. He has also reported for the Sun newspaper and the Guardian’s night and breaking news teams. Contact Mark

PaymentsCompliance offers leading commentary from the cutting edge of the global payments industry. Driven by an experienced team of lawyers and journalists, PaymentsCompliance bridges the gap between being aware of regulatory change and developments in payments and accessing the critical information and tools clients need to understand and prepare their businesses to react to these changes.

BlockchainBriefing is the world’s leading information and news portal for ledger technology, delivered straight to your inbox. Our in-depth news and analysis, expert commentary from legal and business minds, and compliance and regulatory updates, provide you with the business intelligence you need to stay abreast of market developments and guide your decision-making process.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Bitcoin, Blockchain

Retailers Remain Skeptical of Apple Pay

June 5, 2015 by Mobile Payment Magazine

In a January earnings call with investors, Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made a confident prediction: “2015 will be the year of Apple Pay,” he said. Since then, the company has aggressively courted retailers – and claimed significant success. “We’ve spoken to all of the top 100 merchants in the U.S., and about half will accept Apple Pay this year, with many more the following year,” a company spokesperson recently told Reuters.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Apple Pay

Android Pay to Work with MasterCard

May 28, 2015 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Today, Google unveiled Android Pay, which will enable MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid and small business cardholders to use their Android phones for everyday purchases in-store and within Android apps. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Android Pay, MasterCard

Android Pay Coming… to Eat Apple’s Lunch?

May 27, 2015 by Mobile Payment Magazine

Google may be unveiling a new mobile payments platform called Android Pay at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. It should be well integrated with Google’s Android mobile operating system, and could very well beat Apple Pay in its features and functionality. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Android Pay, Apple, Apple Pay, google

Strategic Alliance Brings Cloud-based Mobile Payments to Asia Pacific Region

May 26, 2015 by Mobile Payment Magazine

SimplyTapp, PromptNow and TIS have created the Asian Payments Cloud initiative to bring the first end-to-end, cloud-based payments solution to the banking and financial services community in the APAC region. The offering allows financial institutions and card issuers to provide a better customer experience to their growing customer segment of Android users by enabling them to use their devices for proximity payments and other real-world transactions. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Asia, PromptNow, SimplyTapp, TIS

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