A few weeks back we heard rumors that Apple mulling over a mobile payments service. A sources familiar with the company’s plans claims that “Their ambitions are very, very serious.” It has reportedly been interviewing senior payments industry executives as part of the plan to build this business. According to one source Apple seeks to fill two new positions, the head of product and head of business development, for the mobile payments service.
Re/code also hears from these sources that the company’s long-time e-commerce head Jennifer Bailey is leading this initiative. She is said to have already met with potential candidates for these two posts. Select candidates will be tasked with building a business around hundreds of millions of credit cards that are already on file. Apple itself has said in the past that majority of its over 600 million iTunes accounts have a credit card on file.
Due to this, Apple’s new service may very well become the biggest payment service the very day it launches. It won’t even have to wait for new users to sign up. It will presumably allow account holders to pay for physical products in apps as well as on the internet through their iOS devices. Apple is reportedly also considering letting users pay for purchases in physical retail stores.
It was reported back in January that PayPal wanted to partner up with Apple on this service. A source claims that both companies have been engaged in talks but details of these talks are not yet known. When contacted by the scribe, a spokesperson for Apple declined to comment.