Back in February, Canada’s credit unions announced it would support Interac’s tokenization service “this spring.” At the time, Canadian Apple Pay theorists suspected this may have been a clue support was coming to our nation’s credit unions.
However, this does not appear to be the case. iPhone in Canada reader Ed forwarded us an email reply he received from the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA), stating how the union would be launching a similar platform “very shortly” called Mobile Pay, and “not Apple Pay”.
Mobile Pay will first launch at “select credit unions” first, then a nationwide rollout, in what looks to be a mobile payment solution to rival Apple Pay.
Canadian banks have yet to support Apple Pay, although evidence has emerged lately to suggest a rollout is coming.
Australia’s banks similarly held out from Apple Pay, but that all changed last week when ANZ Bank broke out and was the first to announce support for Apple Pay. ANZ Bank’s CEO said he was overwhelmed by messages asking for Apple Pay and decided to deliver what customers wanted.
So there you have it folks, if you were waiting for Canadian credit unions to support Apple Pay, it doesn’t look promising based on this email.
