Apple is in talks with Visa as it ponders launching a mobile wallet this autumn, according to tech site The Information, guoted by finextra. The latest bout of rumours suggest that the ability to make instore payments could finally arrive with the iPhone 6, although The Information’s sources offer contradictory takes on the technology, with one saying that the system is likely to be NFC-based and another suggesting that it will rely on Bluetooth and WiFi.
The report suggests that Apple will not be going down the host card emulation route, instead making use of the Secure Element, although the famously proprietorial tech titan has no intention of „giving up any control to wireless carriers”.
Apple hopes that working with Visa will also help it bypass the payment processing chain, helping it to lower costs for merchants and customers, says The Information.
“Apple’s play is simple: enable more services on iOS to drive up sales. Payments (and transit) are compelling „mass market” use cases that touch billions of users. I have many (strong) reasons to believe it’s not just Visa that Apple is negotiating with…”, says Alexander Peschkoff on finextra’s blog.
Another comment on the same blog reflect the possibility that Apple to get a lending/banking licence.
Ketharaman Swaminathan consider that “By issuing a mobile-only Line of Credit for all cards on file in iTunes, Apple can get 700M customers overnight and bypass the issuer bank in the process. Many retailers have already announced plans for iBeacons. Ensuring that they support instore payments frictionlessly could result in the acquirer bank getting disintermediated. A tieup with Visa will ensure open loop payments. By cutting out the issuer and acquirer, Apple could in a position to offer lower MSC / MDF to merchants, which will give merchants the compelling reason to step up their investment in new infrastructure. Maybe this would require Apple to get a lending / banking license.”
In conclusion, “If all this happened, mobile payments would be one more industry that Apple would succeed in where others before it have failed.”
Meanwhile, we do not know what Apple is planning, only that they are planning something.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
