Apple Pay To Go International This Year?

Apple is busy trying to make Apple Pay happen outside the United States, and it appears that as early as this year, its mobile payment system can finally be used outside American borders.

The tech giant is currently in talks with six of the biggest banking institutions in Canada, which include Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and National Bank of Canada. The parties involved are negotiating a possible launch for Apple Pay in the country by November later this year, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. If this pulls through, this would mark the first time Apple’s new contactless payment technology goes international.

Apple Pay was first introduced in October of last year. This system basically allows owners of the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch to facilitate payment transactions for items in stores through the use of near field communications (NFC) technology.

Since its launched, the mobile payment system has gained support from many US banks, retailers, and other business establishments. It was only really a matter of time before it hits the rest of the world, too, especially in countries like China and of course, Canada, where iPhones enjoy a solid share of the smartphone market.

A few clever users based in Canada have actually started using Apple Pay by changing the location settings on their mobile devices, and then using US credit or debit cards. But when it comes to local Canadian banks, Apple is still in the process of getting their support, officially. 

It is true that Canada basically shares the same banking systems as the US, but there are a few notable differences. For instance, the fees for using Apple Pay varies. In the US, Apple charges banks a 0.15 percent cut for every credit card transaction and one half cent for every debit card transaction. But in Canada, banks could be charged more than 0.15 percent, maybe even 0.25 percent.

Another issue is security. In the US, having Apple Pay transactions authorized via fingerprint authentication is good enough. But in Canada, banks require a secondary authentication process, such as entering PIN or a one-time code. Canadian banks are reportedly forming a consortium to try to develop a secondary layer authentication for Apple Pay transactions. Apple, of course, sees this as unnecessary, and totally defeating the idea of a simple and quick contactless mobile payment system.