U.K.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic prompting more consumers to use contactless payments, the U.K.’s banks have lobbied for higher contactless payments limits, a move which could benefit the biometrics payments industry.

The bank will start with a mobile checking account for U.K. customers this year, followed by a full slate of products that could include credit cards, mortgages and car loans.

In a post-Brexit move, Mastercard is raising interchange rates for card-not-present transactions on U.K.-issued cards when spent with European merchants.

Anyone who experiences severe side effects as a result of this mass vaccination campaign must go through a relatively little-known program that has existed since 1979.

The simplest of mechanisms, having evolved over time, has now become a trending solution, a beacon of a brighter time and an essential service provider in an hour of need, says PPS' Tessa Unsworth.

Fundraising platform TapSimple has raised nearly £1 million (U.S. $1.3 million) in an investment round that will help it to continue to develop fundraising activity in what it describes as an increasingly cashless world.

The U.K. Supreme Court has rejected Mastercard’s attempt to force individual lawsuits over claims the card brand overcharged consumers and negatively impacted competition for more than a decade.

As a way to help small businesses maintain COVID-19 social distancing measures, Judopay is using a longer-range QR code that removes the need for any interaction at a point of sale device.

Looking to ease contactless payments for cash wary consumers and businesses, PayPal has launched QR code payment acceptance in its iZettle point-of-sale application for small businesses in the U.K.

Cash is fading in the Middle East, and traditional banks are turning to fintechs to expedite upgrades before challenger banks and digital wallets seize the advantage.