Australia mobile payments jump; NIST digital ID guidelines

Australia’s mobile payments jumped to over four billion transactions worth AUD100 billion in 2024, with one-quarter of the population using mobile wallets for all payments. While mobile payments growth reflects rising digital wallet adoption, 73% of Australians still prefer to keep physical debit and credit cards as a backup when digital payments fail, citing system outages and battery issues. Card loyalty is highest among baby boomers (84%) and Gen X (75%), versus 55% for Gen Z. Nearly half of card transactions now occur via mobile wallets. The Reserve Bank’s plan to end card surcharges could save consumers AUD780 million annually, further modernizing Australia’s payments system. Meanwhile, Project Acacia advances tokenized asset settlement in 24 use cases. In the United States, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued new digital ID guidelines (SP 800-63 Rev 4), updating its framework since 2017. The digital identity guidelines introduce enhanced risk management, continuous evaluation metrics, fraud checks and forged-media controls to combat deepfakes, which rose by 20% in Q1 2025 and now make up 7% of global fraud attacks.