Apple Pay’s availability in Canada has taken a giant step forward with two major Canadian banks starting to offer the service starting today.
Beginning Tuesday, Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will support Apple’s NFC payment technology, along with ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services — while three other banks out of Canada’s Big Five are set to hop on the bandwagon over the coming months.
“We are thrilled that seven of Canada’s leading banks, including every one of the Big Five, are are bringing Apple Pay to their customers,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice-president of Apple Pay.
In most cases, Canadian customers will be able to use their debit and credit cards, although ATB and Canadian Tire Financial currently only support credit. There’s no word yet on the exact launch date of the Bank of Montreal, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia in terms of Apple Pay.
Apple Pay first went live in Canada in November last year, but it was initially only available to Canucks with American Express cards — not including co-branded AmEx cards like those offered by the Bank of Nova Scotia. The delay in bank support came down to attempts on the part of banks to create own-brand apps, as well as concerns about how much money they were giving Apple in transaction fees.
Thankfully it appears those concerns have now been solved to everyone’s mutual satisfaction! For more on the rollout you can check out Apple’s support page here.
Via: Financial Post
