Canadian banks sign on for Apple Pay expansion
Two major Canadian banks have signed on to Apple Pay, marking a significant expansion of the tech giant’s mobile wallet service in Canada.
Starting Tuesday, debit and major credit cards issued by Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will support the payments technology, which allows users to load cards onto their iPhones and Apple Watches and make in-store purchases using their devices.
Two other financial institutions, ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services, are also part of Tuesday’s build-out, with the other three big banks rounding out Canada’s Big Five expected to join in the coming months.
The involvement of the big banks marks a milestone for Apple Pay, which launched on a small scale in Canada late last year through American Express.
“We are thrilled that seven of Canada’s leading banks, including ... every one of the Big Five, are bringing Apple Pay to their customers,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vicepresident of Apple Pay, said in an interview.
Starting Tuesday, owners of the iPhone 6 and more recent models, as well as the Apple Watch, can add multiple cards from the various issuers into their digital wallet, then select which one they want to use for a particular in-store transaction. These institutions will support Apple Pay’s in-app transaction functionality in June.
CIBC and RBC are supporting MasterCard, Visa and American Express credit cards as well as debit cards, while ATB’s debit capability will come at a later date. Canadian Tire Financial will only support credit.
Bank of Montreal, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia have also agreed to support the service in the coming months, according to the tech giant, but don’t have a specific launch date.
It’s been a long time coming for Canada and Apple Pay, a service first launched in the United States back in October 2014.
The Canadian expansion follows a period of uncertainty in the country’s mobile wallet space, as the major financial institutions have been working to develop their own solutions.
CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia and Royal Bank of Canada are among the banks that were chasing after consumer digital transactions with their own apps.
The banks, which have been in talks with Apple for months, had indicated that two issues were fundamental to any partnership with the tech giant: The need to maintain client security and to preserve client relationships.
But the financial institutions were realistic, too, recognizing the pull of a brand like Apple and realizing that they did not want to put customers in the position of having to choose between their bank and their phone.
Financial terms of the Apple Pay agreement were not released.