Apple Planning November Launch of Apple Pay in Canada

applepayApple is planning to launch Apple Pay in Canada later this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, claims Apple is in negotiations with six Canadian banks about a potential November launch of the mobile payments service, which debuted in the United States last October and has yet to become available in other countries.

The six Canadian banks reportedly in talks with Apple include the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada. The financial institutions, which together account for more than 90% of Canadian bank accounts, are open to supporting Apple Pay in Canada, although have expressed concern about higher fees and potential security issues.

"The banks are open to an agreement, but they aren’t happy with Apple’s fee proposals and are concerned about security vulnerabilities like the ones that U.S. banks experienced as they rolled out the service, the people said."

Canada is a well-prepared candidate to receive Apple Pay support, as many retailers and businesses across the country are already equipped with contactless payment terminals that are required for the iPhone-based mobile payments service. The country was one of the earlier adopters of Chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards that can be tapped against a payment terminal when making a purchase, and Apple Pay would be a natural extension of that functionality.

The six Canadian banks have reportedly formed a consortium and hired consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. to develop a security protocol for Apple Pay. The financial institutions have also considered the need for secondary authentication to verify customer information, such as entering a PIN, logging on to a mobile banking app or using a one-time passcode sent via text message before cards can be used on Apple Pay.

Apple announced last year that it is targeting international expansion of Apple Pay, and speculation has mainly been focused upon Canada, China and the United Kingdom. Apple's efforts to launch Apple Pay in China have faced some roadblocks, however, and Apple's talks to roll out Apple Pay in the United Kingdom during the first half of 2015 are similarly stalled as some banks are concerned about potential privacy issues.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Canada

Top Rated Comments

wsc9005 Avatar
118 months ago
Still no plan for the UK :/
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
taran420 Avatar
118 months ago
I don't get why people hate on apple for not releasing things worldwide. If they had a choice why wouldn't they? They have to work with that countries rules and regulations and get all sorts of clearance.

For example iTunes Radio in Canada, they likely have to go through CRTC and boy are they a bunch of *******s. I'm sure each country has its own organization that apple needs to negotiate with before launching services.

I'm sure Apple isn't against making profit by launching worldwide from the get go #
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yaboyac29 Avatar
118 months ago
About time
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
prowlmedia Avatar
118 months ago
I wouldn't get your hopes up. UK Banks are not at all happy with Apple Pay's security. (http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/29/7459925/apple-pay-uk-launch-2015-banks-fear-invasion) I highly doubt our banks will give any control over to Apple. And rightly so.

Why rightly so. The UK banks are money grabbing shysters!?

And the basis of the 'unnamed' bank argument is null and void as no data is collected by apple - "So when you go to a physical business and use Apple Pay, Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it, or how much you paid for it. The transaction is between you, the merchant, and your bank."

And as for security. No other payment method is as secure. Period.

Also. Doesn't really have anything to do with the banks - If barclaycard or Visa implement it. and they will then that's that.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleInLVX Avatar
118 months ago
RBC isn't happy with the fee structure. What a load. Their random 'fees' have been dinging my accounts for no reason for years. I'm sure that what's upsetting them has something to do with how they can squeeze more fees out the people using the bank.

Still, must say that I am looking forward to this. I only hope the banks don't mess it up.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
snaky69 Avatar
118 months ago
About time

Indeed.

I still don't get why Apple didn't roll this out here first. Pretty much every single terminal I encounter on a daily basis has NFC built in unlike in the US.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iPhone 15 Pro FineWoven

Apple Reportedly Stops Production of FineWoven Accessories

Sunday April 21, 2024 6:03 am PDT by
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...