Mikey Campbell
Apple on Tuesday issued a statement to bring attention to the dozens of companies that threw support behind Apple Pay over the past few weeks, including the addition of ten new banks and an NBA arena.
As reported by The New York Times, Apple offered a brief rundown of the latest card issuing banks to adopt Apple Pay, saying that ten new institutions — Associated Bank, BB&T, Black Hills FCU, Commerce Bank, Dupaco Community Credit Union, Idaho Central Credit Union, First Tennessee Bank, TD Bank North America, WesBanco and UW Credit Union — will be officially integrated with the service starting today.
Some of the banks mentioned, including Commerce Bank and UW CU, were already announced in recent updates to Apple's rolling list of participating issuers. Other recent additions from November include Barclaycard, USAA, while Fremont Bank and NIH Federal Credit Union announced support last week.
The publication also said Amway Center, which plays host to NBA basketball team the Orlando Magic, will debut touchless Apple Pay point-of-sale terminals on Friday. According to Sports Business Daily, The Magic partnered with Levy Restaurants and Chase to bring 60 initial POS locations at concession stands and merchandise shops, a number expected to hit 200 when the season starts next year.
"One of the biggest pieces of feedback we get from our fans is that the food and beverage lines are too long," Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins told The Times. "It keeps them from going to the concession stand because they don't want to miss the action. This, and technologies like Apple Pay, will speed up our service."
While Apple has yet to release official Apple Pay performance numbers, CEO Tim Cook said in October that the service registered more than one million cards in its first 72 hours of operation.
A separate litmus test conducted by last month showed Apple's mobile payments gamble was off to a good start at participating retailers, with Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus feature accounting for one percent of all transactions at grocer Whole Foods. Fast food giant McDonald's said Apple Pay accounted for half of its touchless transactions, while Walgreens saw digital wallet transactions double since Apple Pay launched with iOS 8.1 in October.
In addition, Square recently announced plans to bring Apple Pay to small businesses with NFC-enabled hardware coming out next year.
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Malcolm Owen
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Marko Zivkovic
85 Comments
A thing of beauty. I can't wait for when Apple finally does release the numbers on ApplePay.
When's it coming to the UK?
I counted 23 banks on the Apple Pay page on Apple's website. There's only about 6,000 more to go! :D Seriously though... in October Tim Cook said 500 banks have signed on to Apple Pay. When will [I]those[/I] be in effect? I realize this is a huge, unprecedented effort... and probably the only major deal between a consumer electronics company and the banking system. I'm just wondering when we will see some huge adoption numbers. They seem to be trickling out a few at a time. At the rate of 23 banks in 2 months... it will take YEARS to get those 500 banks activated. I'm hoping there will be a big announcement soon saying 200-300 banks are ready to go. But I don't want them to rush and get sloppy :)
Hello from Canada. Tim, can you kick the Apple Canada exec's into action at all?
[quote name="whatisgoingon" url="/t/183926/apple-says-dozens-of-banks-and-stores-signed-up-for-apple-pay-in-recent-weeks#post_2652015"]Hello from Canada. Tim, can you kick the Apple Canada exec's into action at all?[/quote] Apple might consider skipping Canada until that government's farce anti-competitive investigation is resolved.