Apple Pay launches in Russia with Sberbank and Mastercard

Apple Pay has launched in the Russian market allowing Sberbank clients and holders of Mastercard carrots use the American tech giant’s contactless payment service.

“Apple Pay is driving the popularization of contactless payments in Russia and globally. Many of Sberbank clients actively use new technologies, and an increasing number of them will prefer cash-free and contactless payment using their smartphones,” commented Alexander Torbakhov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank.

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The service will use Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service platform (MDES), which use industry-standard EMV-level security, and are protected using standards-based payment tokens.

“Mastercard is a technology leader and we are committed to bringing innovations to the Russian market and by doing so, we get Russia to the digital future. With the launch of Apple Pay cardholders have a safe, easy and private way to pay for everyday purchases with their favorite devices – when, where and how they want,” − said Alexey Malinovskiy, Head of Mastercard Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia.

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The launch in Russia means Apple’s payment service is now live in ten countries including the UK, the US, China, Australia and Canada.

Samsung Pay launched in Russia last month while Android Pay is live in the US, the UK, Australia and Singapore and last month suggested it will move onto the web. Apple Pay has already expanded into computer payments with Apple Pay for the Web. It looks to be a very exciting market as Juniper research predicts payments made via services such as Apple Pay and Android on the web will reach $8 billion by 2018.

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