As it stands, Apple Pay sort of steps on PayPal’s toes in terms of mobile payment services, although that is just one aspect of PayPal’s services. However it looks like Apple could get closer to taking on PayPal in full, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal who suggests that the Cupertino company might have a new payment service in the works.
The report claims that according to people familiar with the talks, Apple is in discussion with US banks about creating a new person-to-person payment service. Basically through this service, you will be able to transfer money to another person directly, kind of like what PayPal’s Venmo offers at the moment.
So far it seems that the banks Apple is in talks with include J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and U.S. Bancorp, however the report notes that a launch isn’t imminent so perhaps these talks might simply be exploratory, or in their early stages so don’t expect to see Apple make any announcements anytime soon.
According to figures by the consultants at Aite Group, Venmo accounts for 19% of mobile person-to-person payments. PayPal also claims that payments made using the platform are up to $2.1 billion in the third quarter, up from $700 million from the same period last year, which is why it isn’t surprising that Apple might want in on this.
It is unclear as to how Apple’s own solution might work, but given Apple Pay, the new Wallet app, NFC, and Touch ID, we can only assume that those features/technologies could be involved in facilitating it. Either way take it with a grain of salt for now, but would an Apple person-to-person mobile payment service be of interest to you?
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