Apple expanding iPhone NFC access to third-party apps (Apple)

Starting with iOS 18.1, iOS developers will be able to offer near-field communication (NFC) contactless transactions using the secure element (SE) from within their own apps on iPhones, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. Using the new NFC and SE, application programming interfaces (APIs), developers will be able to offer in-app contactless transactions for in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop transit, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets, with government IDs to be supported in the future. The only catch is that developers will need to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, request the NFC and SE entitlement, and pay the associated fees. [Read more at Apple]

This follows a commitment made by Apple to the European Commission in July 2024 to grant European iOS developers similar NFC and SE access to address antitrust charges. Even the new commitment is not fully global in scope. The NFC and SE APIs will only be available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although additional locations are said to follow.

Sole Jamaican CBDC wallet provider questions JAM-DEX progress (Ledger Insights)

According to National Commercial Bank (NCB) Jamaica, the sole commercial bank providing wallets for JAM-DEX, the use of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been low. NCB CEO Jamaica Bruce Bowen said this may be linked to the few usage options for the CBDC, along with the process. Merchant adoption has been slow, despite the Bank of Jamaica committing funds earlier in 2024 for a technology provider to upgrade 10,000 of the more modern point of sale (POS) machines to support JAM-DEX. Also, Bowen noted that usage of NCB’s Lynk digital wallet has been strong, few users are converting their bank deposit balances to JAM-DEX. [Read more at Radio Jamaica News]

ASX sued over prior statements about its now-abandoned blockchain project (Cointelegraph)

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has sued the Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX), alleging it made “misleading and deceptive” statements over its now-abandoned project to replace its aging systems with blockchain technology. ASIC claims the ASX had no “reasonable basis” to publish statements that claimed its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) trading platform was “on track for go-live” and was “progressing well”, when in fact it “was not tracking to plan”. [Read more at ASIC]

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