Apple Pay not coming to UK's Barclays until 2016, CEO says
Roger Fingas
Customers of U.K. bank Barclays will have to wait until early 2016 to use of Apple Pay on their iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches, according to an email from the company's CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking.
"We have signed up for Apple Pay and will launch it very early in the New Year," Ashok Vaswani said in an email response to a customer complaint. "We truly value your custom and hope that you continue to bank with us particularly since we are launching this shortly."
Barclays has been a conspicuous gap in Apple Pay's U.K. coverage. The platform first launched in the region July, and has since come to most major banks there, such as Lloyds, HSBC, and Santander.
In July Barclays suggested that its support of Apple Pay was "imminent." Ultimately, though, it missed not only the U.K. launch of Apple Pay that month, but also an expanded rollout in mid-September.
The exact reason for the delay is unknown, but a bank's support of Apple Pay typically only comes after negotiations over fees and other issues. Barclays has also been attempting to promote its own wireless payment system, bPay.
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