Apple has come to a preliminary agreement with China UnionPay to introduce Apple Pay in China through UnionPay’s point-of-sales network.
The deal — which builds on this week’s report that Apple Pay will be coming to China by February 2016 — will help UnionPay and Chinese banks to fend off third-party payment services like those belonging to Alibaba and Tencent.
It would be great news for Apple, too, since it will allow Apple Pay to work on the 5 million UnionPay point-of-sale NFC machines in the country.
Apple Pay has taken its time coming to China, despite Tim Cook calling it “top of the list” in terms of his priorities. The main sticking point has been the previous inability to negotiate an amount that Apple will claim per Apple Pay transaction that is acceptable to both Apple and Chinese banks.
There are still regulatory hurdles for Apple to overcome, but it finally looks as though Apple Pay is going to be on its way in one of the world’s biggest markets in the next several months — no doubt adding to the fears of banks around the world, as we wrote about earlier today.
Source: Bloomberg
