Zapp Takes The Fight To Apple Pay With Barclays Pingit Deal

Barclays has announced its plan to take on Apple Pay with a new partnership with mobile payments specialists Zapp.

The bank has announced that it will be teaming up with Zapp to provide its “Pay by Bank” service to the Barlcays Pingit app from October 2015.

The launch puts the companies in direct competition with Apple’s new payments service, as Barclays is the only major UK bank not to have signed up to Apple Pay. It joins HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank in announcing support for Zapp, although these banks have also declared they will also be supporting Apple Pay.

Sign up

The service will be available to both Android and iOS users, with anyone possessing a UK bank or building society account and a smartphone with a UK-registered number able to sign up.

As Pingit is available for anyone to download, regardless of whether they are a Barclays customer or not, Barclays says the deal will make it the UK’s first total market mobile payment solution.

Security is provided by Zapp’s own tokenisation service, which will work in tandem with the protection already offered by the Barclays Pingit app.

Zapp has already secured support from a number of the UK’s leading retailers, with Sainsbury’s, Asda, House of Fraser, Thomas Cook and Shop Direct among those on board.

“We’re delighted to be able to announce that Pay by Bank app will now include Barclays Pingit,” said Peter Keenan, chief executive of Zapp. “This means every UK consumer will be able to make Pay by Bank app mobile payments from October that are easier and more secure.”

“Having Barclays come on board – with their huge scale and enviable reputation for innovation, coupled with their extensive corporate client base – reaffirms that Barclays and Zapp are at the cutting edge of Fintech, innovation and collaboration.”

Barclays first launched Pingit in 2012, allowing customers a quick and secure way to send and receive money. The app has since been downloaded over 4.2 million times, with its users, which include over 67,000 businesses, sending over £1.2 billion using the service.

“We have been innovating in the mobile space for many years and we’re delighted to announce another pioneering move: Pingit users will be the first in the UK to take advantage of Pay by Bank app payments,” said Darren Foulds, managing director of mobile payments at Barclays.

“Our customers have taken to mobile banking in their millions. We’re now able to build on the success of Pingit and meet the growing demand from our customers to use their mobiles to pay for goods and services swiftly and securely. We expect to see rapid take up of Pay by Bank app payments.”

All checked up on mobile payments? Try our quiz!