PayPal Wins UK Consumer Trust Pre-Apple Pay Launch

Because of the population’s affinity for contactless payments in the U.K., Apple Pay might make more of a splash across the pond when it launches tomorrow (July 14).

But quicker adoption doesn’t mean it has won over the hearts of U.K. consumers in terms of which mobile wallet its residents trust most. Research from Forrester shows that of those surveyed, 43 percent of consumers trust PayPal, whereas only 27 percent of iPhone users said they would trust Apple Pay. That also falls behind trust for the mobile wallets of banks with credit card networks (40 percent) and Amazon (32 percent) for mobile payments.

“Faster adoption in the U.K. does not mean Apple Pay will scale quickly,” commented Forrester analyst Thomas Husson. “Apple still has to demonstrate the added value it will bring to merchants (better experience, faster checkout, incremental revenues, etc.) and brands. Apple needs to create trust among U.K. consumers. They managed to do so in the U.S., and no doubt trust will increase with the backing of banks.”

Consumer trust toward mobile wallets plays a key role in how banks may plan to invest in the technology as other statistics show that banks are increasingly worried about keeping up with tech firms who have begun to specialize in payments. Research from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) indicates that 36 percent of banks believe those companies pose a threat to their financial products. In terms of retailers and other non-financial services, 21 percent of banks said they were the biggest threat, and 13 percent said newer banks on the market were also a threat. PayPal and other payment specialists were cited by 12 percent of those surveyed.

PayPal is an interesting case, particularly at the moment, as it will soon (July 20) be a publicly traded company again. PayPal’s ambitions have grown much further into the payments ecosystem as it recently bought Paydiant for $280 million. Also, PayPal announced its plans to acquire the international digital money transfer firm Xoom for $890 million.

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To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

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