Canada's Desjardins, UK's Metro & The Co-Operative add support for Apple Pay

Outside of Russia, a trio of international financial institutions added support for Apple Pay on Tuesday, including Canada's Desjardins, and the U.K.'s Metro Bank and The Co-Operative Bank.

The Desjardins addition may be most significant of the three, as the credit union is commonplace in the major province of Quebec, with smaller footprints in the rest of Canada and in Florida. Customers can add Desjardins debit and Visa cards to Apple Pay through the iOS Wallet app.

While Metro Bank noted that all of its cards are compatible with Apple Pay, The Co-Operative said that "most" of its cards are supported, the exceptions being Affinity and any of its business cards.

Banks and credit unions have been relatively quick to support Apple. The real obstacle — at least in the U.S. — has been merchants, since retailers have been slow to upgrade their point-of-sale terminals to something compatible with the NFC chips in iPhones and the Apple Watch.

Indeed some retailers that have promised support for years, like Anthropologie and Forever 21, have yet to deliver. This may explain why Apple removed a "coming soon" section from its U.S. merchant list.