Worldpay is declaring a tipping point for contactless payments in the UK, as tap and pay transactions overtake Chip and Pin for in-store card payments for the first time.

The latest figures from Worldpay show that contactless usage jumped by 30% in the past year to become the most popular form of card payment for in-store transactions. 

Fashion retailers have seen the greatest shift from Chip and PIN to contactless, with the sector citing a massive 415% year-on-year increase. Mobile contactless payments also rose significantly in the clothing and footwear sector, up almost 500% over the past year. Betting shops and department stores also saw significant growth of mobile contactless payments: between 150-250%. 

Worldpay predicts that during the final six months of 2018, UK shoppers could spend up to £38.5billion via contactless transactions in-store. Part of this growth comes from the rise in use of mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay, which have seen a 114% increase on the high street over the same period.

– Finextra –

And now for something completely different – losses due to card fraud at EU payment terminals have fallen to the lowest level since 2005.

Figures released by the European Association for Secure Transactions (East) show total losses of €107 million for the first six months of 2018 – a 43% drop – primarily as a result of a 19% dip in card skimming scams (down from €118 million to €104 million).

East executive director Lachlan Gunn says: “The significant drop in card skimming incidents and losses reflects the continued effectiveness of EMV, as well as the work that has been put in by payment terminal deployers and card issuers with regard to counter-measures such as geo-blocking, fraud monitoring capabilities and fraud detection.”

Logical attacks against ATMs were also down 46%, while cash machine jackpotting attempts pulled in a miserly €0.25 million, compared to €1.51 million in the equivalent period last year.

Instead, criminals appear to be resorting to brute force tactics, with ram raids and explosive attacks all ticking up. Losses due to ATM related physical attacks were €15.1 million, a 24% increase from the €12.2 million reported during the same period in 2017.

– Finextra –

The event organized by the People’s Committee of Hà Nội, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) and the Việt Nam Software and IT Services (Vinasa).

During the summit, delegates shared visions, strategies and experiences of smart urban building and collect opinions from managers and IT experts on smart urban management, planning and development based on new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality (AR).

At the conference, MK Group had the booth with the aim of displaying and introducing solutions to help create smart cities in an effective and practical way.

Among solutions proposed by MK Group at the seminar, eTicket solution is of high interest for its especially effective applicability in public transportation, i.e. buses, trains, high-speed rails, automatic/smart parking. As a member of the two largest public transport card standard organizations, the CAPLYPSO standards of Calypso Networks Association and CIRPUSE standards of Open Alliance for Public Transportation (OSPT) Alliance, MK Group solutions can easily integrate electronic ticketing standards developed by various contractors for public transportation systems in Vietnam.

Besides, security authentication solution, card issuance and smartcard applications such as prepaid card payment, event ticket management solutions were also introduced at the conference.

The conference brought together over 600 delegates, who are leaders of central-level offices, Hanoi and other localities keen on building smart cities, associations, organizations and IT-related enterprises, together with nearly 70 foreign delegates from 20 nations and economies around the world.

Ha Noi, Da Nang City, HCM City and Can Tho City will be chosen to be the core of smart city networks in the northern, central, southern and Mekong Delta regions, respectively. Ha Noi is home to nearly eight million people, with an average density of more than 2,279 people per sq.km, even 42,000 people per sq.km in some districts.

The budget for implementing the program was lifted to 3 trillion VNĐ (more than US$127.7 million) from 1.25 trillion VNĐ, creating a foundation for Ha Noi to promote socio-economic development and become a smart city.

The Secret Service has notified U.S. financial institutions about a recent increase in “eavesdropping” attacks on ATMs.

The agency said it has received communications from several FIs about recent incidents, according to a report by Krebs on Security.

In this type of ATM skimming, criminals cut a hole in the ATM cabinet in order to insert an endscope, which allows them to see inside the machine as they place a skimming device on the card reader.

Commenters on the Krebs site pointed out that this skimming method is not a new kind of threat, but a new application of a well-known type of data theft at ATMs — skimming — that can be detected by existing ATM protection technologies.

– atmmarketplace.com –

Visa has announced they will be updating their rules and will be allowing DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) on Visa International Transactions effective 13th April, 2019.

Mastercard already allows DCC on Mastercard Transactions and so this will be an additional income stream for ATM Operators.