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Contactless Payments Surge In Ireland, With Mobile Wallets Taking The Lead
Consumers in Ireland made more than 1.4bn contactless payments, valued at €24.8bn, in the year to the end of June 2024, according to the latest data from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
For the first time, more than half of these payments were made via mobile wallets rather than cards.
In addition, the report highlights the scale of online and mobile banking, with more than 670m transactions processed, amounting to nearly €7.5trn in value.
“Looking at domestic in-store card payments as a whole, we can see that the volume of contactless payments continues to rise, with some 86.1 percent of all domestic point of sale card payments now contactless," said Gillian Byrne, BPFI's head of payments.
Byrne highlighted in the report that there are a number of regional differences, with Dublin leading the way in terms of the number of contactless payments per capita.
Dublin came in at 395, more than 40 percent above the national average, followed by other cities such as Carlow (329), Limerick (287) and Waterford (282).
Hong Kong To Retire The Term ‘Virtual Bank’
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced that it will soon retire the term “virtual bank” and replace it with “digital bank”.
The move follows an HKMA consultation that put the proposed name change to Hong Kong’s financial sector.
After receiving 26 submissions, the HKMA said that the respondents were “broadly supportive” of the proposal and that the majority agreed with the name change.
The regulator will now amend its "Guideline on Authorization of Virtual Banks" to the "Guideline on Authorization of Digital Banks".
Losses To Romance Scams Double In Denmark
Danes are falling victim to romance scams at an alarming rate, with losses nearly doubling in the first half of 2024, according to new data from Finans Danmark. Although the number of reported victims has remained steady, scammers are stealing more money.
In the first six months of 2024, banks in the country registered 217 cases of romance scams. Scammers initially gained DKK20.6m from these attacks, but bank interventions were able to reduce the losses to DKK9.7m.
This still marks a near 100 percent rise compared to the latter half of 2023, and the figures released by the trade association are only representative of cases where victims contacted their banks or were alerted to the fraud by bank officials.
"There is good reason to assume that the number is much higher,” said Michael Busk-Jepsen, director of digitisation at Finans Danmark.
“We know it's a scam that many victims are embarrassed to share with others, and many do not share it with the bank either. Therefore, by all accounts, there is a large number in the dark when it comes to love fraud."
Japan’s JCB Enables Google Pay For Card Users
JCB, Japan’s domestic and international card brand, has announced that customers with Android devices can use their cards via Google Pay.
Once a JCB debit or credit card is linked to the app, Google Pay can be used to make mobile payments anywhere that JCB Contactless is accepted, including for Transit payments.
JCB said it plans to extend this support to other JCB-brand card issuers both in Japan and other markets.
“With built-in authentication, transaction encryption and fraud protection, Google Pay helps keep your money and personal information safe,” JCB said in a statement.
