Apple Pay Retailers Up By 28 After Apple Adds Banks, Credit Unions

Apple Pay retailers may be slow to take off in the U.S., but that hasn’t stopped the technology company’s mobile pay arm from adding more banks to its roster.

According to a report, Apple Pay retailers are now up by 28 as Apple added new banks and credit card unions around the country since the payment service was refreshed in May. The new banks and credit unions now accepting mobile pay method Apple Pay include Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union, Citizens Community Federal N.A., Citizens National Bank of Park Rapids, Commercial Savings Bank, Corydon State Bank, Dieterich Bank, Equity Bank, First Alliance Bank, First Community Bank (MT), First National Bank of Bellville, First United Bank & Trust, Firstrust Bank, Franklin-Oil Region Credit Union, Hometown Bank (MA), Lakeside Bank, Mazuma Credit Union, New York Commerical Bank, North Shore Federal Credit Union, Parke Bank, PBI Bank, Rivertrust Federal Credit Union, Salal Credit Union, Simple, Snake River Federal Credit Union, Summit National Bank, The State Bank and Trust Company of Defiance, University of Illinois Credit Union, and White Crown Federal Credit Union. Separately Mastercard announced Apple Pay is now live in Italy with Carrefour Bank and Unicredit card holders having immediate access to the payment method.

The new banks and credit union partners aren’t the only news coming out of Apple when it comes to Apple Pay. This week, it announced at its World Wide Developer Conference that iOS 11 will support the ability for users to send money to friends and family through its iMessage. During a presentation, the Cupertino, Calif., technology company said the P2P payments feature will be built into iMessage as an app that lets users send and request money from contacts with one tap. It will also automatically alert users when a contact tells them via in iMessage that they owe the contact money and prompt users to send the payments. Users of iMessage can now send peer-to-peer payments via third-party apps, including Venmo and Square, but this marks the first time Apple is doing it on its own. The fact that the peer-to-peer payments will be integrated into its Apple Pay probably means its own app will overtake third-party ones.