Apple has signed an agreement with one of Israel's leading credit card companies to bring Apple Pay to the country by the end of the year, according to Ynet.
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Isracard announced to the stock exchange that it has signed an agreement with Apple for four years that will allow its card to be used in Apple's digital payment method.
Apple has been in negotiations with financial institutions in the Middle East to bring Apple Pay to Israel since February. Apple routinely takes commission from national banking institutions in return for access to Apple Pay, and it appears that Isracard is the first credit card company in the country to formulate an agreement with Apple.
Many Israeli businesses have already adopted the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) standard for mobiles, allowing customer account credentials to be loaded directly onto NFC-enabled smartphones and used in contactless transactions.
Unlike Android devices, Apple's devices don't allow access to the NFC chip through apps other than Apple's own Wallet app, which means financial bodies must sign an Apple Pay agreement that allows the card to be registered in the Wallet.
Apple maintains a complete list of the countries where Apple Pay is available on its support site, and we have a detailed Apple Pay roundup with everything you need to know about Apple's payments service.
Update: Apple Pay is also now available at Bank of Ireland.
(Thanks, Ohad and forum member iLoveDeveloping!)
Top Rated Comments
Not necessarily.. Apparently, Apple's commission of 0.15% to 0.25% was a bit high for the banks and other institutions, and after an extensive negotiation, Apple agreed to lower the commission to 0.05% (which is, in fact, one of the lowest rates compared to states where Apple Pay is currently available).Things with Apple Pay roll out are almost always due to banks. Every institution needs to strike a deal and license to be able to have the technology available on their cards.
Even in the US we have certain debit/credit cards that don't support Apple Pay, even if other cards issued by the same exact bank do.
There isn’t any connection ?♂️Not aware of any ARM manufacturing going on in Israel, but even if there is, what is the connection between chip manufacturing and merchants accepting Apple Pay?
Apple’s development center in Israel is the one responsible for the Apple chips design, not the manufacturing.
On the other hand, some of Intel’s CPUs are designed and manufactured in Israel so Apple transition to ARM could potentially affect Intel’s business in this country.
It is still unrelated to Apple Pay :)
The team behind the new cpu chips are an Israeli company; in the keynote they should the guy speaking about it from Israel my mate works for high tech in Israelwasn’t ARM UK made?
Does not apply for Apple Watch. That's the best way to enjoy Apple Pay.If needs to take off the mask to pay than is better to use the credit card folks!