Barclays Exec Says Bank Will Support Apple Pay

Barclays is looking toward an “imminent launch” of Apple Pay within the United Kingdom, according to MacRumors.

In a report on Friday (July 10), the site said it had learned that a “high-level” executive expects the Apple Pay debut to come quite soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday; although, according to the site, it is not clear whether Barclays will be among the first-to-market partners for Apple Pay. That’s because of what has been termed “delayed negotiations” with the tech behemoth over the service.

As MacRumors noted, the bank’s subsidiary Barclaycard has offered an Apple Rewards Visa Card for several years. In addition, Barclaycard has recently boosted its “bPay” wearable solutions offerings for contactless payments, which have now embraced wristbands and key fobs. That push has been tied to some surmising that the company could be readying its own mobile platform, though MacRumors said the speculation of an imminent Apple Pay launch would indicate a Barclays-specific mobile payments service may not be in the offing.

According to MacRumors, the bank was “notably absent” from a list of financial institutions that will support the mobile payments platform at the initial launch. That list of participating banks includes HSBC, Lloyds Bank, First Direct, Halifax, M&S Bank, MBNA, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander, TSB, and Ulster Bank, in addition to Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Apple, for its part, said last month at an event that its mobile payments will indeed be available in the U.K. this month but has yet to provide an official release date. But employee training materials have given the implicit launch date as Tuesday, July 14, according to MacRumors, with additional clues stemming from the fact that Santander customers have been able to add their own cards to Passbook that can be used in conjunction with Apple Pay. Those consumers have been able to make purchases ahead of the rumored July 14 launch.

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