Apple Pay is currently supported by large banks in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. However, Apple is planning on opening up their mobile payment system by accepting non-bank-issued credit cards, MasterCard – most notably.
According to a source familiar with MasterCard’s internal document, the company will support Apple Pay in Canada. MasterCard credit cards are issued by some of the biggest Canada’s banks, such as BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank, and TD Canada Trust, while store-branded MasterCard credit cards are available from Canadian Tire, Costco, and Walmart. It is clear MasterCard covers millions of potential Apple Pay users, so no wonder why Apple is interested in expanding their payment service this way.
Additionally, MasterCard is looking to expand its Apple Pay support to Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore in 2016. For Apple Pay, Brazil and Japan would be entirely new markets.
Apple is putting a lot of effort into strengthening their mobile payment system, attracting new users, and being supported by hundreds of banks around the world. The company currently seems to be working hard on launching Apple Pay in France, and it could make an announcement regarding these plans at WWDC in June. One of the latest Apple’s achievements was entering China and creating a deal with UnionPay, a state-run interbank network that holds a monopoly on the country’s credit and debit card processing.
