Judo Payments Will Support Apple Pay Launch In UK

Judo Payments, Europe’s only mobile-first payments platform, confirmed this week (June 9) that it will support Apple Pay during its launch in the U.K. this coming July. Until recently it was still unclear where the launch would take place. Now that we know Apple Pay is targeting the U.K. first, things are moving fast. Judo is currently working with key merchants to get their mobile apps ready. With a total of 250,000 merchant locations accepting the mobile payment option, there is a lot of work to be done.

The U.K., which first introduced contactless payments in 2007, is widely expected to see a faster adoption of Apple Pay compared to the U.S. because of the existing infrastructure in place to support contactless card payments. In fact, with a 52.2 percent rise in number of contactless cards since December 2013, there are more than 58 million contactless cards in circulation in the U.K., including 36.9 million debit cards and 21.2 million credit cards.

The U.K. launch is set to transform mobile payments, providing an easy, secure and private way to pay for physical goods and services across a number of mobile apps, such as clothing, tickets and groceries in iOS apps. By simply using Touch ID, users on supported Apple devices can quickly and securely provide all their payment and shipping information to check out with a single touch. The service looks set to make a big impact on how U.K. consumers pay for products and services. In addition, Judo claims that it will provide mobile-specific fraud prevention technology, with real-time fraud scoring, to help businesses overcome fraud and security concerns.

“Cardless technology like Apple Pay will revolutionize the way we buy goods. The phrase ‘game changer’ is overused, but this will genuinely change consumers’ behavior, and we couldn’t be happier to be involved at the initial launch. Apple Pay has already transformed mobile payments for businesses in the U.S., and now we have a clear timeline for the launch of Apple Pay in the U.K. The integration of our SDK into Apple Pay through apps will enable consumers to utilize the smart computer in their pocket,” said Dennis Jones, CEO of Judo.

Judo payments had already partnered with KFC in the U.K. in January to develop a new feature in KFC app: a customer can walk into a store with the app open and purchase their food directly from it without having to wait in line or pay using cash or card. Functionality includes auto-refresh of the customer’s balance.

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