TRENDING: mPOS That Turns Fingerprints Into Payments

New developments in the mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) space are coming to the rescue for both merchants and consumers who don’t like to be tied down.

Among them is a new biometric-based mPOS solution for merchants, designed to allow consumers to travel light, leaving wallets, payment cards and devices at home. Merchants, too, are tapping into the promise and potential of mPOS by turning to new solutions in hopes of enabling store staff to get out from behind traditional checkout counters and accept customer payments wherever they are.

In the June mPOS Tracker, PYMNTS explores new solutions coming to merchants selling everything from clothing to boat fuel.

Around the mPOS World

Around the mPOS space, payments companies are teaming up in hopes of offering merchants a stronger set of solutions.

That includes industry giant PayPal, which swept headlines with its recent $2.2 billion acquisition of Swedish payments company iZettle. For PayPal, the acquisition opens up the mPOS market, positioning it for stronger competition against Square, while iZettle will now operate in more than 200 countries around the globe.

Meanwhile, in Ghana, merchants are getting a payments boost. Hubtel, which offers local merchants an app and EMV card reader designed to support payment acceptance, recently announced a partnership with Payworks. The latter company will now work to power the solution, and support local debit scheme payments via a payments gateway technology and certification.

And in Asia, Singapore’s NETS and Mint Payments are working to enable merchants to accept a variety of payment methods via one NETS terminal. The deal is aimed at assisting the advancement of digital payments in Singapore and furthering Mint’s goal to serve Asian markets transitioning toward reduced cash use.

Find more of the latest headlines in the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

And in Asia, Singapore’s NETS and Mint Payments are working to enable merchants to accept a variety of payment methods via one NETS terminal. The deal is aimed at assisting the advancement of digital payments in Singapore and furthering Mint’s goal to serve Asian markets transitioning toward reduced cash use. Find more of the latest headlines in the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

Tapping into Biometric Payments

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s easy for something to get left behind, be it a smartphone, wallet or credit card. That can be a big problem for consumers who find themselves at the point of purchase only to realize that while they have the funds needed to pay a bill, they don’t have the right tools to access it.

That’s the absentminded mistake that Touché is aiming to remedy with a new mPOS device that lets customers pay with something they can’t leave behind — their fingertips. In this month’s feature story, Touché CEO and founder Sahba Saint-Claire told PYMNTS how the company’s device enables fingerprint-based payments to charge purchases to users’ linked accounts, and what it will take to get merchants and consumers on board with biometrics.

“Biometrics is the future,” Saint-Claire said. “[But] we believe there will be a time lag. It takes some time for some people to feel comfortable.”

To get the full story, download the Tracker.

About the Tracker

The mPOS Tracker is your go-to resource for staying up-to-date on a month-by-month basis. The Tracker highlights the contributions of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.