AppleInsider Staff
Apple continues to expand the reach of its popular mobile payment system, with the Cupertino company rolling out support for cards from nearly two dozen additional financial institutions — including major investment bank Morgan Stanley — on Wednesday.
The addition of Morgan Stanley may seem odd, given that the firm offers no retail banking services, but that is not the case. Investment banks like Morgan Stanley often offer exclusive credit cards to customers who use the bank's wealth management services.
One famous example is JPMorgan Chase's Palladium card — made from a combination of gold and palladium thought to cost around $1,000 per card — which is believed to require prospective cardholders to invest more than $20 million before obtaining one.
Morgan Stanley has two such arrangements with American Express, including a customized version of American Express's popular Platinum card. Merrill Lynch, a Morgan Stanley competitor, was one of Apple Pay's earliest adopters.
Also coming on board are Affinity Federal Credit Union, Cabela's Club, Central Bank, Credit Union of Southern California, Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, First National Bank of Omaha, First Sentry Bank, FirstBank, Grow Financial Federal Credit Union, Ideal Credit Union, Redwood Credit Union, State Department Federal Credit Union, Teachers Credit Union, Technology Credit Union, The Northern Trust Company, The Independent BankersBank, United Federal Credit Union, and Utah First Federal Credit Union.
All told, Apple has now added support for nearly 100 of the more than 700 banks and credit unions that have signed up to integrate Apple Pay.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
33 Comments
I was skeptical - and still am - about the future of ApplePay, but it's certainly nice to see the list of adopters continue to swell.
The problem remains, to get the average person - not the AI reader, or techie, or 30-and-under - to understand why ApplePay is such a significant improvement in security and safety, and, to a lesser extent, ease-of-use.
These are the folks whose spending, by dint of sheer numbers, will make or break this foray into a new business for Apple, and, at least so far, that group still seems pretty clueless, because their sources of information (e.g. the evening news, etc.) are also generally pretty clueless, about the finer points, the specific distinctions, between it and everything that's gone before.
Cue Benjamin Frost's love filled post about wonderful things related to ?Pay.
[quote name="boredumb" url="/t/184848/morgan-stanley-leads-20-new-bank-and-credit-union-additions-for-apple-pay#post_2677897"]I was skeptical - and still am - about the future of ApplePay, but it's certainly nice to see the list of adopters continue to swell. The problem remains, to get the average person - not the AI reader, or techie, or 30-and-under - to understand why ApplePay is such a significant improvement in security and safety, and, to a lesser extent, ease-of-use. These are the folks whose spending, by dint of sheer numbers, will make or break this foray into a new business for Apple, and, at least so far, that group still seems pretty clueless, because their sources of information (e.g. the evening news, etc.) are also generally pretty clueless, about the finer points, the specific distinctions, between it and [I]everything[/I] that's gone before. [/quote] Just give it time. I recall vividly the disbelief in the UK that we'd ever be able to master decimalized currency. For ages I remember the stalls at the local produce market had items priced in both the old system (base 20 [B][I]AND[/I][/B] base 12) and the new (base 10). Newspapers were full of horror stories about the elderly or math(s) challenged being befuddled and / or cheated. Same probably went for the change over to metric measurements but I'd escaped by then. :D
ApplePay.. ITunes Radio!! Apple Is Doomed!™ Oh wait!
[quote name="NasserAE" url="/t/184848/morgan-stanley-leads-20-new-bank-and-credit-union-additions-for-apple-pay#post_2677902"]ApplePay.. ITunes Radio!! Apple Is Doomed!™ Oh wait![/quote] Don't forget the other good one, 'no one in China can afford an Apple product.'