Santander Bank in U.S. Now Supports Apple Pay With MasterCard Branded Credit and Debit Cards

Santander Bank recently announced that it is launching Apple Pay support to its customers in the United States for the first time, allowing any MasterCard branded credit or debit card distributed by Santander to be added to Apple's mobile wallet. After being added in Apple Pay, Santander MasterCard holders can use the service on a compatible iPhone to pay at participating retailers, purchase items within apps, or shop on the web.

Santander said that Apple Pay is one of many customer-focused innovations it has launched over the past few months, which include an update to the company's mobile app that added in a mobile check deposit feature as well as Touch ID log-in support. Additionally, the company mentioned that more updates will continue to roll out throughout 2017.

Santander Bank's 2.1 million customers are principally located in the northeast U.S., including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Santander has already introduced Apple Pay support to its customers in Spain and the United Kingdom.

"Our customers have been telling us that they want to do more on-the-go digital banking using their mobile devices," said Michael Cleary, Santander's Head of Consumer and Business Banking. "At Santander, we pride ourselves on listening to our customers. We've responded to their feedback by investing more resources in our mobile banking platform and upgrading the digital tools and services customers need to truly bank anywhere with Santander, and Apple Pay is a great example of that innovation."

The bank has set up a new Apple Pay webpage on its site to guide users through the steps needed to add a credit or debit card into the Wallet app on iPhone and iPad. As with all other Apple Pay-supported banks, the service is available on iPhone 6 and later, iPhone SE, Apple Watch, the late 2016 MacBook Pro, and iPad mini 3 or later within apps and Safari. Macs introduced in 2012 and later can also be used, but checkout will have to be confirmed through an Apple Pay-enabled iPhone or Apple Watch.