If Android Pay is to be a successful mobile wallet solution, then it must take on Apple Pay, of course. And with Apple Pay having recently been snatched up by issuers of corporate cards, Android Pay will have to follow suit.
Reports on Wednesday (March 23) suggest that it is. Android Pay announced its official rollout plan for U.K. expansion yesterday, with players like MasterCard, Visa and Global Payments also announcing their support of the new market.
In MasterCard’s announcement of support for Android Pay, the credit card firm said that its small business and commercial card products will also support the mobile wallet.
But it is unclear whether other banks and card issuers will link their corporate card products with Android Pay, too.
It took some time for Apple Pay to see corporate card integration.
It wasn’t until last August that American Express introduced plans to facilitate commercial card use on Apple Pay after stating in late 2014 that its commercial cards wouldn’t be compatible with the mobile wallet — only consumer card products.
Some analysts believe Apple Pay is likely to target the commercial card as it continues development. Reports last October pointed to a new patent filing by Apple that would introduce a mechanism for an Apple Pay user to add multiple users onto a single Apple Pay account, each with their own restrictions — a feature that analysts said could be key for corporate spend controls.
With the expansion of Android Pay into the U.K., the commercial card industry is likely to express demand for support of the mobile payment solution. But when Google announced plans to enter the market, one major bank emerged as a notable exception.
According to reports, Barclays will not support Android Pay, announcing instead that it would funnel its mobile payment efforts into its Barclaycard Android app, which also supports NFC payments.
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