Apple’s payment service Apple Pay is gaining in popularity, with 21 new financial institutions joining the growing list that accepts the digital payment method.
According to a report, the new group of banks to now support Apple Pay include American Eagle Financial Credit Union, Central Virginia Federal Credit Union, Community Bank & Trust of Florida, Community Savings Bank, First Bank of Berne, First Financial Federal Credit Union, Fremont Federal Credit Union, Greater State Bank and Highlands State Bank, among a host of others.
The new bank partnerships come as the company recently announced new features coming to Apple Pay during its worldwide developers conference in June. The biggest announcement out of the iOS 11 redesign part of the presentation was the announcement that Apple’s long speculated-upon addition of P2P payments to Apple Pay is finally happening.
As of now, Pay P2P will live inside iMessage — it is not clear if the P2P platform will work outside the messaging app. What we do know is that it won’t work unless both parties have an iPhone, iPad or the Apple Watch. Apple also launched its Apple Pay Cash card — Apple’s digital debit product. Funds sent through the P2P service will be sent to the card. From there, they can be sent back to customers’ bank accounts. Users can, however, also store the cards directly in their Apple Pay wallets and use them to spend online and in-store wherever Apple Pay is currently accepted. With mobile pay, Apple is now directly competing with PayPal, PayPal-owned Venmo, Square Cash and popular bank services like Chase QuickPay and Zelle.
Since Apple launched Apple Pay in the U.S., the payment method has been expanded to include Canada, France, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Spain, Ireland and Taiwan. Person to Person and Apple Pay Cash will only be available to U.S. consumers at launch time.