Apple Pay recruits new card issuers in US, Canada, Russia & Japan

By Roger Fingas

Apple has updated its roster of Apple Pay card issuers with dozens of new entries, mostly in the U.S., but also some in Canada, Russia, and Japan.

Most of the new U.S. entries are regional banks and credit unions, reflecting the fact that most national firms were onboard within a year of Apple Pay's Oct. 2014 launch. The one exception in this instance is a carrier service, T-Mobile Money.

Japanese shoppers can now use UCS cards, and added Canadian institutions include Affinity Credit Union, Collabria Financial Services, Conexus Credit Union, and Envision Financial, the last a part of First West Credit Union.

In Russia, new options include Home Credit Bank, National Standard Bank, both Visa and Mastercard at Chelyabinvestbank, and Visa cards at the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The full list of U.S. additions is below:

This week Apple officially launched Apple Pay Cash, which lets people send and receive money through the Messages apps for iOS 11.2 and watchOS 4.2.