DES MOINES, Iowa—With Apple Pay potentially marking a new era in mobile payments, it’s time credit unions begin enrolling their BINs with the payment alternative.
That was part of the advice shared by Brian Day during a webinar from The Members Group on Mobile Payments: Momentum from Apple Pay.
Day, senior product manager, pointed out that Apple Pay, when it launches, addresses a roadblock that has been slowing consumer acceptance of mobile payments—convenience.
“Apple Pay is simple,” said Day. “Consumers walk up to the payment terminal, place their finger on the phone’s biometric sensor, and then tap their phone on the POS terminal. It’s very simple and fast.”
But if consumers begin attempting to load their CU’s plastic into Apple Pay and the CU has not enrolled, the member will likely receive some type of message saying the attempt failed, explained Day.
“We are not sure what that message will be, but if the credit union’s card is not set up in Apple Pay the message members see on their smartphone may well be ‘contact your financial institution.’”
Day added that TMG is working on an easy integration/enrollment process for Apple Pay for its member CUs.
But Apple Pay still faces challenges, Day noted. The Android operating system claims more than a 50% share of the mobile device market, with iOS at 42%. And Google Wallet and Softcard are strong mobile wallet players as well. Merchants, too, need to install or turn on near field communication capability at POS and consumers must upgrade to the latest smartphones equipped with NFC.
Day noted that many grocery store and gas chains are not initially accepted in Apple Pay. “And food and gas make up a significant percentage of consumer transactions.”