Is Apple Pay expanding the services it offers in Europe?

Will they or won’t they?

Apple has more than doubled the number of floors it leases at a City of London building in which it currently houses the Apple Pay team. Might this suggest expansion of the service in the UK and Europe?

What’s the news here?

What we know is that Apple has taken another three floors of office space at 22 Bishopsgate, a 62-floor skyscraper complex in the City of London. It has now taken an additional three floors.

A Sunday Times report tells us the Apple Pay team has been based in the building, but makes no claim that this is what the additional floors will be used for.

Apple Pay is currently available in 48 nations and regions in Europe across most banks. However, beyond rapid growth in the existing Apple Pay business, here are four reasons to speculate that the company may be expanding its team:

• Apple Pay Cash: Years since it was introduced in the U.S., Apple Pay Cash remains unavailable outside North America. That’s significant given Europe and the UK have already become far more accustomed to using contactless mobile payment services. An expansion of that offering seems well overdue.
• Apple Card: Apple Card is another Apple Pay-related service that could use expansion into the region. Not only has the card proved incredibly popular in the U.S. since launch, but choosing to locate management in the City of London could prove shrewd. It would be interesting and perhaps relevant to discover if the company is expanding its presence in other European financial centers.

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

• Buy now; Pay later (BNPL): We have also heard claims Apple and partner Goldman Sachs may be planning to introduce BNPL services via Apple Pay. Dubbed Apple Pay Later, the service would give users a chance to spread repayments across four interest free payments made over a set period of time. Applications would be approved via Apple Wallet. You’ll be able to choose to pay for things in four interest-free payments made every two weeks (‘Apple Pay in 4’), or across several months if you pay interest (Apple Pay Monthly Instalments). Such schemes are courting some controversy at present with UK shoppers racking up over £4 billion in debt so far, according to Credit Karma, as reported by The Guardian. The UK market may seem particularly ripe for this kind of service, given even its politicians appear to experience difficulties getting by on a mere £80+k/year, plus benefits.
• Apple Pay Transit: We know Apple is expanding this service into other nations, but this is unlikely to account for this much expansion.

Just tap and go

Speculation is not fact and this is speculation

We have no indication whatsoever that Apple intends expanding or introducing any of these services in the UK. Nor can we really assume that just because the Apple Pay team is currently based in that place that any expansion in space is to expand that team. But there are good reasons to imagine the company to be setting the scene for business expansion in the segment.

For example:

• We know the company is deeply committed to building services income, which grew 26% in the just gone quarter. Apple has grown this segment from $24.3b in 2016 to $68.4b in 2021.
• We also know that as Apple faces regulatory interference in its App Store business it will want to accelerate business growth across its other services in order to maintain momentum in the segment.
• Finally, we know for certain that Apple has been able to prove the relationship between customer satisfaction on its hardware devices and subsequent adoption of its services – just look at the speed with which services income has grown.

Back to reality with a bump

This enthusiastic screed must of course be tempered with some reality. In this case, a casual glance at Apple’s recruitment website shows just eighteen current vacancies in the Apple Pay team in London, mostly in engineering.

That doesn’t seem like a large enough drive to justify three additional floors, which means this entire story could be nothing more than fable. Though it remains relevant, I think, to ask: “What other services might Apple want to launch in the heart of London’s most prestigious business district?” After all, one of the grains of truth in this is that Apple is leasing three additional floors there. We may never know what for.

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