North American mobile payments usage stagnates

From Finextra –

“Apple and Google may have boosted awareness of mobile payments in North America over the last year, but actual usage has remained flat, according to a survey from Accenture.”

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Canada; Royal Bank to test ‘pay with your wrist’ technology

From MBN

“Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is going to pilot test a ‘pay with your wrist’ technology called Nymi which identifies the customer’s unique heartbeat and allows credit card payments to go ahead.

The wristband, developed by Bionym, a Toronto-based developer of biometric and authentication technologies and applications for consumer electronics, looks very much like a watch. The device will be worn and tested by 250 RBC customers and employees. The pilot trial will continue until February 2015.

The aim is to eventually roll out the RBC PayBand (Nymi Band) to all its customers across Canada.

Jeremy Bornstein, head of RBC’s payments innovation operations, says his company has been considering wearable space for quite some time.”

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Canadians File Suit to Block FATCA and Prohibit Handover of U.S. Names to IRS

From Forbes

‘A lawsuit has been filed by several Canadian citizens against the Canadian Attorney General in Federal Court in Canada. The legal claim challenges the constitutionality of the agreement the Canadian government struck with the United States. The controversial deal between nations was inked under FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

FATCA is America’s global tax law. More than 80 nations have signed on to the U.S. law, so what’s the big deal about Canada? Many Canadians are still hopping mad that their own government bowed to pressure from the south. The Canadian plaintiffs hope to stop the Government of Canada from turning over private bank account information from more than one million United States persons and their families, living in Canada.’

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Augmented reality enhances RBC banking app for branch, ATM location

From Mobile Payments Today

“Royal Bank of Canada has updated its mobile banking up with augmented reality to help users find the closest RBC branch or ATM. RBC said it is the first Canadian financial institution to incorporate AR into its banking app.

AR provides a live view of a physical environment the elements of which are augmented by computer-generated input such as sound, video or GPS data.”

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Royal Canadian Mint conducts crypto-currency trial

From Mobile Payments Today

“The Royal Canadian Mint is currently running an employee trial of its MintChip crypto-currency. MintChip is linked to the Canadian dollar, and is designed for low-value online, mobile and physical payments.

A Canadian government-owned crown corporation that produces Canada's coins, the Mint has issued MintChip accounts to 200 employees at its Ottawa and Winnipeg offices. It has installed Ingenico's IWL220B contactless card readers in its cafeterias, enabling pilot participants to pay for purchases using MintChip via NFC-enabled BlackBerry 10 smartphones.”

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BitAccess Bitcoin ATMs Doing $10K in Transactions Daily

From newsBTC

“If we’ve learned anything in the past few months about bitcoin ATMs, it’s that it’s big business. Last year, the first bitcoin ATM to be made available to the public (installed in a downtown Vancouver by Nevada-based Robocoin) did about $1 million in transactions in the first month.

But a new startup called BitAccess, based in Canada, is hoping to make a splash in the market. With $10 million in funding committed by BiT Capital, this ATM manufacturer has already launched a bitcoin ATM in Montreal, another in Ottawa, and Toronto, with other locations in Canada planned.”

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Canadian police use YouTube to catch ATM thieves

Canadian police have hailed the power of social media after a YouTube video helped catch a gang suspected of breaking into more than 100 ATMs and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last November, the Halton Regional Police service decided to post its first video on YouTube, featuring CCTV footage of attacks, in a bid to generate leads.

They offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects involved in numerous break & enters across Ontario and Quebec where they targeted ATM machines using an Oxy-Acetylene torch.

With more than 60,000 views, the video has been "instrumental in generating leads which helped police to identify and arrest four people" in connection with the attacks.

The four gang members, Pierre Poirier, William Nolin, and Rejean and Maxime Lavigne have been hit with 65 charges with another 50 set to come from other jurisdictions.