Apple Pay Coming to Israel Soon as Negotiations Are Finalized

Apple Pay will soon come to Israel as Isracard Group, one of Israel’s leading financial companies has announced to support the platform.

Isracard Group will begin supporting Apple Pay, bringing it into the country by end of the year, according to AppleInsider, who translated a report from Israeli news outlet Ynet. The deal, which was recently finalized, saw Isracard Group agree to support Apple Pay for a minimum of four years. While neither Apple nor Isracard Group have made a public message, the agreement was announced to the stock exchange.

News of Apple Pay landing in Israel comes after an elongated six month period of negotiations as Apple has been attempting to form an agreement with various financial companies in the Middle East. In exchange for access to Apple Pay, Apple takes a commission from the financial institutions of which support the contactless payment system.

Isracard Group, which includes Mastercard, Visa, and American Express Israel, has agreed to Apple’s terms and commission. Via the Ynet report, the company has said its customers “who own an iPhone that holds debit cards that support this will soon be able to pay through the device.”

Up until this month, Israel did not have access to the NFC system. With NFC access in place and the commission terms ironed out, Israel will now join the list of Apple Pay supported countries.