Metro Bank And Co-op Enable iPhone And Apple Watch Payments With Apple Pay

Roland Moore-Colyer,
tsb bank apple pay

Apple Pay is increasing its share of contactless payments by signing up two high street banks

Apple Pay is now available for Metro Bank and Co-operative Bank customers, extending the reach of the iPhone and Apple Watch contactless payment service.

Metro Bank is one of the newest financial companies on the high street having opened in 2010 and is a keen adopter of the latest technologies. For example, the bank makes use of Microsoft’s Power BI tool to provide its business intelligence, as well as making heavy use of the Redmond company’s Office 365 suite.

So it is not surprising that the bank should adopt Apple Pay, given the growth of contactless payments both in the UK and the US.

And the Co-operative Bank brings Apple Pay support for its credit card services to coincide with enabling customers to pay for goods from its Food division through Cupertino’s contactless payment tech.

Apple versus Android Pay

Contactless Mobile - Barclays Now Image 1“This is yet another step on our journey to create the UK’s most convenient banking experience.  Our market-leading account opening process allows customers to get a debit card and chequebook printed instantly, register for internet banking and download our mobile app and Apple Pay before they leave the store, said Paul Riseborough, chief commercial officer at Metro Bank,

“With Apple Pay, our commitment to ensuring our customers “walk out working” just got even better.”

Getting into Metro Bank and Co-operative Bank before rival Android Pay is a minor coup for Apple.

While Metro bank has prioritised the implementation of Apple Pay over Android Pay, the UK launch the latter and its adoption by many of the UK’s major bank chains presents a challenge for Apple Pay, which launched nearly a year earlier. So for the time being Apple Pay has the lead over its Android rival with use in Metro Bank.

However, the contactless payments market is very much one to play for given that in the UK consumers has rapidly adopted the technology, with contactless payment transactions trebling across the space of a single year.

Barclays bank, which initially shunned Apple Pay, looks to be trying to forge its own niche in the arena, having created bPay Loop to give smartwatches and fitness bands the ability to carry out contactless payments.

All clued up on mobile payments? Try our quiz!