Microsoft Wallet Gets Support From Ally Bank, First Light FCU

Microsoft may not be a huge player in the online payments market like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay, but it is in the mobile payments market and now has added two banks to the ones that support its payment method.

According to a news report, Microsoft Wallet is now accepted at Ally Bank and First Light FCU. The report cited a Reddit user for discovering the mobile pay support and pointed out Microsoft has not listed the banks on the support page for Microsoft Wallet.

Last summer, Microsoft unveiled a new app, dubbed Wallet 2.0, which debuted along with NFC Tap to Pay. The payment method works with credit or debit cards and also membership and loyalty cards.

While Microsoft isn’t leading in online payments, it is focusing a lot on advanced technologies. Earlier this summer, Accenture and Microsoft announced they are partnering up to help develop a digital ID network through the use of distributed ledger blockchain technology. This is part of a larger United Nations-backed project to provide legal identification to people around the world without an official document. The goal of this project is to help refugees (currently 1.1 billion people) prove they are who they say they are in order to receive essential services, like education and healthcare.

During the second ID2020 Summit in New York, the prototype for this distributed ledger network, which will connect current record-keeping systems with blockchain technology, was debuted. Thanks to the partnership between Accenture and Microsoft, through this new system, refugees will be able to access their virtual paperwork wherever they’re located.

Accenture’s Managing Director of Financial Services, David Treat, highlighted the importance of legal ID access with this new offering. “Without an identity,” he said, “you can’t access education, financial services, healthcare, you name it. You are disenfranchised and marginalized from society.”