Apple Pay expands to Canada with support from major banks this June

Apple's SVP for Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey demos the features of Apple Pay which is coming to Canada this JuneBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple Pay is available to all active Interac debit cards issued by CIBC and RBC. Your debit card does not have to be an Interac Flash enabled card. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. You will first need to add your debit card to the Apple Wallet to make mobile transactions.

Interac can be used with Apple Pay to buy goods and services across Canada in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian stores wherever contactless payments 

Apple Pay, which securely uses iPhone and Apple Watch to enable contact less payments, has been in Canada for some time now but limited to customers of American Express credit cards. That is all changing shortly as major banks and other credit card companies have been announced as partners and are looking to offer the functionality to their iPhone and Apple Watch-toting users. 

Apple has confirmed that Apple Pay will be coming to CIBC (credit and debit), ATB (credit, debit coming later), Canadian Tire Financial Services (credit), RBC (credit and debit) and of course American Express has enjoyed the first-mover advantage since late last year. 

Moreover, the following banking institutions plan on going live in the coming months with Apple Pay, BMO (credit and debit), TD (credit and debit) and Scotiabank (credit and debit).

Apple says Visa, MasterCard and Interac will all be supported where offered by the banks. While competing mobile payment solutions from Google and Samsung exist, Apple Pay is the dominant and more fleshed out ecosystem and the first to be available on a global basis.

Apple Pay also extends to purchasing physical goods within apps or purchasing items from the Apple Store, while American Express is currently live and that won¹t change, support for all of the rest of the banks above will also be going live sometime in June, with final timing to be confirmed.

"Apple Pay is an innovative, secure and convenient mobile payment method that will help further the growth and evolution of digital debit payments in Canada," said Mark O'Connell, President and CEO, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation. "Interac, when paired with Apple Pay, will bring mobile payments into the 'everyday' and allow Canadians to experience enhanced simplicity and ease when paying with Interac." 

With Canadians using Interac more than any other payment type, Apple Pay support of Interac is well positioned for a successful rollout in Canada. "Canadians embrace new technologies quickly and will, no doubt, find tremendous value and convenience when using their Interac debit cards with Apple Pay," said Avinash Chidambaram, Vice President, Product and Platform Development, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation. "In the coming months, Canadians will also be able to use Interac for In-App payments, further simplifying the online shopping experience and providing yet another way for Canadians to use their own money when making purchases."

For Canadians, who have long had the ability to use touchless payments with their debit and credit cards, the availability of Apple Pay further simplifies the purchasing process. Apple uses hardware and software as well as features within its OS to enable a secure and fast payment using Touch ID to verify the user's identity and it is now possible to leave all your plastic cards at home and simply use Apple's Wallet app on the phone or the Apple Watch to make purchases.

Details

Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay, so when used with a payment card, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element of the supported Apple device.

Using the Interac Token Service Provider (TSP) service, each Apple Pay transaction is validated with a one-time unique token (a dynamic security code). The Interac TSP service was developed in collaboration with IBM, a world leader in mobile and cloud computing, Bell ID, a global provider of tokenization software for mobile payments, and Everlink, a leading provider of integrated payment solutions and services. Since Apple Pay transactions using Interac are backed by the Interac brand, consumers are further protected from fraud with transaction limits and zero customer liability. 

Availability

Apple Pay is available to all active Interac debit cards issued by CIBC and RBC. Your debit card does not have to be an Interac Flash enabled card. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. You will first need to add your debit card to the Apple Wallet to make mobile transactions.

Interac can be used with Apple Pay to buy goods and services across Canada in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian stores wherever contactless payments are already accepted. Just look for the contactless symbol on the payment terminal at checkout.

During its recent earnings report, Apple has stressed that it is leaning on the profits of its services business which includes Apple Music, Apple Pay and iTunes and the App Store. As the sales of the iPhone decline and as varying economic realities impacted earnings, services has proven to be more profitable for Apple than both Mac and iPad sales combined.

Apple's services revenue was $5.99 billion in the fiscal second quarter, beating analyst estimates of $5.78 billion, according to StreetAccount. This was a 20 percent rise from the same period last year. Paving the way for services like Apple Pay in Canada and other countries is a smart and profitable way to bolster Apple's bottom line and further ensure customer loyalty to Apple's brand and products as well as expand their ecosystem.