Following up on an earlier story, card issuer and financial services giant American Express has confirmed that it will launch Apple Pay support for its cards in Canada tomorrow. The move, an end-run around “dragging” Canadian banks, will bring official compatibility to Amex-issued cards in the country. Apple Pay already works widely in Canada, due to more than 70 percent of merchants having NFC-compatible contactless card readers at POS terminals, but was limited to cards issued by US financial institutions until now.
Other independent card issues, such as Capital One, are expected to follow suit, as they have been issuing contactless-compatible cards for some time. The major stumbling blocks to acceptance with Canadian banks has not been spelled out, but is thought to be the demand for Apple Pay support of Interact Flash, a contactless debit card system run by the major banks.
There has been some recent indication that the problems have been overcome, and that Apple Pay support is coming shortly to Canadian banks such as TD Bank, which accidentally leaked an Apple Pay support page on its website recently. Support had been expected to debut this month, as the holiday shopping season heats up, and some banks may still make that deadline, but the move by Amex may put further pressure on the Canadian banks to adopt the mobile payment technology as quickly as possible, as was seen in the UK.
American Express is also acting independently (in partnership with Apple) to bring Apple Pay support for its cards to Australia by the end of the year. The card issuer will also support expansion into Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain among other places over the course of 2016, reports iPhoneInCanada. Apple Pay works with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s lines (including the Plus models), and the iPhone 5s and later through the Apple Watch. In-app or online Apple Pay support also works with iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3 and later.
