Big Five banks sign up to Apple Pay

Apple is extending its payments services in Canada after two of the country’s biggest banks agreed to facilitate Apple Pay.

Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce are the first of the Big Five to sign up, with debit and credit cards now able to be loaded by customers onto their iPhones and Apple Watches. This then allows consumers to pay for goods instore via their phones or watches (mobile wallets), removing the need to dig into a wallet or purse to find a plastic bankcard.

Apple Pay has been present in Canada for around six months after launching with American Express in late 2015.

ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services are two other organisations joining the Royal and Imperial banks in the latest rollout. The other banks making up the Big Five - Bank of Montreal, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia - are also expected to launch Apple Pay sooner rather than later.

“For RBC, innovation and advancing mobile payments are fundamental to how we are meeting the evolving expectations of our clients and ensuring that we are everywhere our clients want us to be,” said Linda Mantia, executive vice-president, Digital, Payments and Cards at RBC. “We’re happy to provide RBC clients with convenience and choice of using Apple Pay. As mobile payments technology continues to mature in Canada, these kinds of innovative payment solutions give clients the ability to make mobile transactions seamless.”

The service has been available in the USA since October 2014, with Canadian banks initially focusing on developing their own solutions before deciding to join forces with Apple. Details of how the deals will work financially for both sides have not been revealed. 

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