Apple Pay's August expansion surge continues with 37 more US banks

Like the Apple Pay expansion in early August, Wednesday's inclusions add a number of small, local financial institutions. The additions were once again announced through Apple's list of Apple Pay providers.

Banks added Wednesday include:

• Bank of St. Francisville
• Bank of Winnfield & Trust Company
• Billings Federal Credit Union
• Central Bank, Oklahoma
• Citizens Business Bank
• City County Employees Credit Union
• First Community Bank
• First Federal Bank of Florida
• First International Bank & Trust
• First Internet Bank of Indiana
• First Volunteer Bank
• Homebank
• Industrial State Bank
• Kitsap Credit Union
• KleinBank
• LA Capitol Federal Credit Union
• Member One Federal Credit Union
• Midwest Bankcentre
• National Bank of Commerce
• Needham Bank
• Northwestern Bank
• Park Side Credit Union
• Park State Bank & Trust
• Redstone Federal Credit Union
• Scenic Community Credit Union
• Services Credit Union
• Springs Valley Bank and Trust
• State Bank of Chilton
• Summit State Bank
• Sun Federal Credit Union
• The Arlington Bank
• The Bank of Hemet
• U.S. Postal Service Federal Credit Union
• Union Bank
• United Bank of Union
• Valley View Bank
• West Financial Credit Union

On Tuesday, Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia and Telekom's Tap & Go were added to Apple Pay. Both banks are incentivizing users to sign up with promotions rewarding users for repeated use of the service.

Apple Pay debuted with a U.S.-only launch in October 2014. At present, the system is capable of both point-of-sale transactions, as well as in-app purchases. Apple Pay utilizes a token-based system with each transaction identifier only able to be used for a single purchase, helping to prevent credit card fraud.

Apple does not generally discuss specific Apple Pay adoption figures in any detail, but Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the service has grown by 400 percent year-over-year, with three million retailers in the U.S. supporting the service.

Apple Pay is now available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.K.

Apple announced an addition to the Apple Pay system at June's WWDC, bringing online payments to iOS 10 and macOS Sierra through the new "Pay with Apple Pay" service.