Apple Pay Coming to Israel By End of Year, Now Available at Bank of Ireland - MacRumors
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Apple Pay Coming to Israel By End of Year, Now Available at Bank of Ireland

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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.

isracard
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!)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Israel
Related Forum: Apple Music, Apple Pay/Card, iCloud, Fitness+

Top Rated Comments

alexandr Avatar
alexandr
71 months ago
given the size of the country, they should be done end of week.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
daPersonB Avatar
daPersonB
71 months ago

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.
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).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
votdfak Avatar
votdfak
71 months ago

If needs to take off the mask to pay than is better to use the credit card folks!
Does not apply for Apple Watch. That's the best way to enjoy Apple Pay.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
E
eyalben
71 months ago

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?
There isn’t any connection 🤷‍♂️

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 :)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
Kylo83
71 months ago

wasn’t ARM UK made?
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 Israel
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DinkThifferent Avatar
DinkThifferent
71 months ago
I’m surprised that it took this long. I always thought that because Israel is kind of a tech hub in the Middle East things like Apple Pay would come sooner.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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