Inexorable Apple Pay global rollout as Bank of Ireland turns on (u)

Apple Pay continues to become globally pervasive with new banks in various countries announcing or beginning to deliver support for the popular contactless payment service, with the Bank of Ireland the latest to enable support.

‘We ain’t going back’

Speaking during a recent Apple financials briefing, company CEO Tim Cook said:

“We continue to be very enthusiastic about the whole payment services area. Apple Card is doing well and Apple Pay is doing exceptionally well.”

He also noted that COVID-19 has accelerated contactless payment adoption worldwide, saying:

“As you can imagine, in this environment, people are less want to hand over a card. So this contactless payment has taken on a different level of adoption in it that, I think, will never go back.

“The U.S. has been lagging a bit in contactless payment, and I think that the pandemic may well put the U.S. on a different trajectory there.

“And so we’re we are very bullish about this area and view that there are more things that Apple can do in this space. And so it’s an area of great interest to us.”

New Apple Pay supporting banks and services

The Apple Pay team is evidently extremely busy in response, as the following recent moves show:

• Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has launched support for Express Transit on its network.
• In Belgium, KBC Brussels, KBC and CBC have all opened up Apple Pay support to customers on all supporting devices, including Mac, iPhone, iPad and Watch.
• Merchant point of sale payment provider the OLB Group now supports Apple Pay.

[Also read: What prepaid cards work with Apple Pay?]

• ExxonMobil has introduced AppClips and Apple Pay support at its fuel pumps meaning drivers can pay directly from the pump in the U.S.. If you don’t have the ExxonMobil app, the contactless connection prompts an Apple Inc. App Clips feature to display a portion of the full-fledged app without requiring the consumer download it at that moment.
• Fashion retailer G-Star in the US now offers a similar integration.
• A new Apple Pay page has appeared on the Apple Mexico website, indicating that support for the service is about to be introduced in Mexico.
• The Bank of Ireland has today introduced Apple Pay support. It becomes the latest of hundreds of banks (as listed here) to support the mobile payment service.
• UPDATE: Bulgaria’s FinBank has enabled Apple Pay.

All the while, no one outside the U.S. seems to have Apple Pay Cash, which is a little sad…

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