Roger Fingas
Making good on an earlier promise, Apple will finally launch Apple Pay in Spain this Thursday, Dec. 1, a new report reveals.
Initially, only one bank — Santander — will be supporting the platform, according to sources for Applesfera. Santander is already an Apple Pay partner in the U.K.
Apple Pay has long been scheduled for Spain in 2016, but Apple originally made that promise last year, raising concerns that Apple might miss the deadline as 2016 progressed and other regions gained support instead. Only a month ago, CEO Tim Cook had to tell investors and analysts that Spain was still coming.
American Express was previously expected to be the vanguard in the country, but may now only be coming later.
As in markets like Australia, the main obstacle is thought to be Spanish banks' preference for their own mobile payment options. Apple claims a small fee for each Apple Pay transaction, meaning that banks can potentially save millions by shutting the company out.
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6 Comments
Getting your foot into the door is better then nothing.
I see La Caxia being the biggest holdout. Caja Madrid will probably fall in line sooner or later.
"Only" one bank, the biggest in Spain by far, with assets 3-4x that of the next largest bank.
Thats a hell of a large wedge to prise into the market with.
Once other financial institutions see customers moving off their cards, or out of their customer base altogether, they will sign up for Apple Pay.
We have seen this happen in US, CDN, UK, CH and soon AUS.
It would be nice if Santander in the UK updated their banking App to use touchID. NatWest/RBS has had it since soon after the launch of Apple Pay.
Do this and I'll move my current/checking account to Santander. Their current App just sucks.