Monese Brings Apple Pay To 13 Countries; UK Retailer Iceland Tests Mobile Wallet Tech

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes the results of a ranking of cities and states in terms of digital payments adoption in India. Banking service Monese now offers Apple Pay through 13 countries in Europe, as the digital payment service has also arrived at National Australia Bank (NAB). And U.K. retailer Iceland has seen encouraging results from a mobile wallet technology pilot during a marketing campaign.

In India, Maharashtra has been named the top state in the country for digital payments adoption as Bengaluru has been ranked as the top city, according to a report from the Economic Times. Retail categories that saw the highest transaction share included restaurants, apparel, gas, grocery and specialty retail. At the same time, it was reported that India saw 10 million new credit cards between March of 2018 and March of this year, while 64 million additional debit cards emerged over that timeframe. In addition, it was noted that the number of point-of-sale (POS) terminals at the end of March 2019 was 3.7 million.

And, in Europe, banking service Monese now offers Apple Pay through 13 countries in the region, according to reports. Users who reside in Belgium, the U.K., Poland, Finland, Ireland and Spain, among other countries, can use their cards from Monese where the digital payment method is accepted. The report also noted that users can switch between their cards from Monese within Wallet as they would within the app from the company. It also pointed out that actual credit card numbers are not stored on a device with Apple Pay and the technology works with iPhone 6 and later, iPhone SE and the Apple Watch.

In other Apple Pay news, clients of National Australia Bank (NAB) can now tap into the digital payment method, according to reports. The report noted the service is available to both business and personal customers that have an eligible Visa credit or debit card from NAB. NAB Chief Customer Experience Officer Rachel Slade said, according to the report, “We’ve been hearing from customers that they want Apple Pay and it’s great to be able to launch this service today.” The report also noted that the bank is letting eligible customers know about payment method’s arrival.

And in the U.K., grocery retailer Iceland has seen “very promising” results from a pilot of mobile wallet technology over the course of a marketing campaign, Prolific North reported. The company brought together coupons in national newspapers that were print-based with a choice to add the coupon via quick-response (QR) code or link to mobile wallets of shoppers. It was also noted that technology lets merchants track and measure redemption values compared to when using only vouchers that are based in print.