The American tech giant has launched its mobile payment service, Apple Pay, in Spain, partnering with Mastercard, Carrefour and American Express.
Just over a month on from Apple Pay’s Japan launch, Apple’s launch today has taken the number of countries where its mobile payment service is active to 13 regions: the US, the UK, China, Switzerland, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Russia, New Zealand.
Mastercard is working with several partners in Spain, including Banco Santander as the first bank, Carrefour as the first retailer and Ticket Restaurant as the first prepaid company to join this launch offering consumers the ability to use their Mastercard cards with Apple Pay.
From Spain to Latin America, Mastercard has also expanded Identity Check Mobile, its biometric services in Brazil and Mexico. The service, which allows customers to authenticate online payments by scanning their fingerprint or by taking a selfie has already been rolled out across 12 European countries such as the Netherlands.
“We find ourselves before a milestone in payments’ evolution. Following the revolution in physical purchases with innovations like Chip technology, contactless payments, and wearables, we are now making Identity Check a reality for online purchases in Latin America after earlier rollouts this year in the U.S. and Europe,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of Enterprise Risk & Security, Mastercard.
The initiative was tested earlier this year in Canada and the US and Mastercard says the data has been very encouraging. Ninety-two percent of users said the app was more convenient than passwords, while 83% consider it to be safer and more secure than passwords.
Whitepapers
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