Apple Pay Eliminates $1 Billion in Fraud as Wallet Expands Digital ID Tools

Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are both gaining users and adding capabilities.

Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said during a Sunday (Oct. 26) keynote at Money 20/20 USA that Apple and its partner ecosystem are making it possible for users to replace their physical wallet with a digital wallet.

Apple Pay is now live in 89 markets around the world and supported by more than 11,000 banks and networks, Bailey said in remarks provided to PYMNTS by Apple.

In the United States, Apple Pay is available at 90% of retailers.

For issuers and merchants around the globe, Apple Pay has generated incremental sales while reducing fraud levels, Bailey said. Over the past year, Apple Pay has eliminated over $1 billion in fraud, shown it can reduce fraud levels by over 60% compared to traditional credit and debit card transactions, and generated over $100 billion in incremental merchant sales by delivering higher authorization rates and greater cardholder engagement, according to data from Apple, Apple Pay partners and industry sources.

Apple Wallet now provides hundreds of millions of users around the globe with access to Apple Pay and other tools, Bailey said.

The digital wallet can now be used for transit in 250 regions and 800 cities, has been used to provision 2 million hotel room keys for 65,000 hotel rooms, and as Car Key in Wallet is supported by 29 car manufacturers and 300 models.

Apple Wallet is increasingly being used for digital identity, Bailey said. ID in Wallet is now live in 12 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Japan’s My Number Card on iPhone marks the wallet’s international expansion of this capability, and Digital ID will soon be rolled out to enable users to create a Digital ID with a U.S. passport.

Another solution, Tap to Pay on iPhone, is live in 48 markets around the world and supported by 15 million merchants, Bailey said.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Apple Pay @11: Usage is Up, but Competitors are Gaining Ground” found that the share of consumers who use a digital wallet in-store weekly rose from 14% last year to 30% today.

The report also found that while Apple Pay leads in this area, rivals like Google Pay, PayPal and Cash App are closing the gap.