Roger Fingas
In Apple's Q1 results call, CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Pay will reach the biggest South American market — Brazil — sometime later this year. [Updated with official webpage]
Cook didn't provide further details, such as possible card issuers or compatible merchants. In December, however, people trying to add Itau Unibanco's Visa Platinum Personnalite card to the iOS Wallet encountered a terms-of-service agreement.
Rumors of Apple Pay coming to Brazil date back to 2016, when Mastercard was expected to be Apple's regional partner. Apple has sometimes partnered directly with credit card companies instead of banks for overseas rollouts.
Apple Pay is now in over a dozen countries, such as the U.S., Canada, China, France, Taiwan, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. It could potentially arrive in Poland in early 2018.
Update: Apple has launched an official webpage, signalling that people will be able to add Visa and Mastercards, including ones from Itau.
Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
7 Comments
Yep, and still no Germany... -.-
They could at least say so if they don't plan to release it here...
I'll bet the United Arab Emirates don't have the 100 $ limit that we have here in Canada. Obviously that's not on Apple but on our Big 5 Bank Cartel's trust issues or plain laziness to reprogram the POS terminals to have their NFC distinguish between a plain tap-to-pay card and a smartphone.
This was a big one. I'm glad it'll coming this year.