Apple Pay Gets More UK Bank Support

Just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season, two more major U.K. banks have signed on to support Apple Pay.

Yesterday (Nov. 17), TSB and Tesco Bank confirmed Apple Pay support for their payment cards is now enabled, allowing their customers to use the contactless payment method by opening the Wallet app and scanning a card or authenticating an existing account via iTunes and App Store, Engadget reported.

Since Apple Pay launched in the U.K. earlier this summer, the list of U.K. financial institutions slated to partner with the payment method has continued to expand, including HSBC, First Direct, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank.

In September, Lloyds Banking Group also announced its plans to support Apple Pay by offering the payment technology to customers of its Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands.

While there may be a long list of U.K. banks who have been eager to join the Apple Pay movement, one bank in particular has committed to offering the payment method but has yet to launch, Engadget confirmed.

Barclays continues to stay relatively tight-lipped about if and when its customers will have access to Apple Pay.

According to reports from MacRumors around the time of Apple Pay’s launch, high-level executives at Barclays reportedly admitted to “delayed negotiations” with the tech behemoth over the service.

With the growing popularity of contactless payments among U.K. consumers, Apple’s ability to continue landing big banks to support Apple Pay may help to expand its reach within the region.

The U.K., which first introduced contactless payments in 2007, has seen the method’s popularity surge, with the total worth of transactions tripling from £653 million (almost $1 billion) in 2013 to £2.32 billion (roughly $3.6 billion) in 2014, research from Lloyds Bank Cardnet confirmed back in July.