Apple considering person-to-person payments for Apple Pay - report

Posted:
in iPhone edited November 2015
The next phase of Apple's mobile payments initiative could reportedly include a new feature that allows users to send money to one another directly, with negotiations between Apple and major U.S. banks already underway.




Apple has spoken with J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital One, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bancorp about the system, according to the Wall Street Journal. It's not clear how far those talks have progressed, and many technical details remain unsettled.

Apple is thought to be considering multiple avenues for implementation, including a partnership with existing P2P transfer network clearXchange. That would allow for a speedier launch, as the bank-backed service is already live for most U.S. mobile banking customers.

While fees were reportedly a sticking point in the initial Apple Pay negotiations, that is unlikely to be a problem this time around as Apple would not charge the banks for participation in this new endeavor.

If the new service does get off the ground, it's unlikely to do so before next year, and it would launch into a crowded market. PayPal's Venmo is the most popular option, but numerous others -- including Square Cash, whose parent company Square is preparing for an IPO -- have been available in this space for years.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    This is great. I use PayPal and Venmo, but I was never comfortable about giving a 3rd-party access to my financial institution.

    This would certainly do away with that need. Deal with Apple and the banks directly. I'm all on-board for this!
  • Reply 2 of 18
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Sounds good. I've wanted a system like this for some time. 

  • Reply 3 of 18
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    Smart
  • Reply 4 of 18
    Great, but can we also get the NFC antennas in the iPad for point-of-sale systems and NFC HW in Macs with a web-based payment system?
  • Reply 5 of 18
    Yes.. Yes and yes !
  • Reply 6 of 18

    Soon...

     

    BREAKING: APPLE TO PROMOTE UNLAWFUL CURRENCY TRANSFER FOR DRUG CARTELS AND THE MAFIA

  • Reply 7 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post



    Great, but can we also get the NFC antennas in the iPad for point-of-sale systems and NFC HW in Macs with a web-based payment system?

    Agreed.  My one disappointment with the iPad Pro announcement in September was lack of NFC.  Because of Apple's push into the Enterprise, including NFC in iPad Pro (and later in smaller iPads) seemed a perfect way to increase merchant support for Apple Pay by positioning iPad Pro as a Pay-enabled point-of-sales terminal.  But... it didn't happen.  Sigh...

  • Reply 8 of 18

    A few weeks ago, my brother owed me some money for half a gift I bought for our mom. I commented that it would be cool if we could transfer money using Apple Pay (we're both iPhone users and non-cash carriers).

  • Reply 9 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post



    Great, but can we also get the NFC antennas in the iPad for point-of-sale systems and NFC HW in Macs with a web-based payment system?



    Agreed. I have litteraly just a submitted a POS app to Apple, and had to use a bluetooth card reader.

  • Reply 10 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    Soon...

     

    BREAKING: APPLE TO PROMOTE UNLAWFUL CURRENCY TRANSFER FOR DRUG CARTELS AND THE MAFIA




    LOL!

     

    But seriously, no financial institution should be involved in the transfer of money between individuals anyway. If you go to the bank and withdraw cash, you can simply hand that over to the other person and no one is the wiser.

     

    It would be much better for privacy and anonymity if Apple implemented their own Bitcoin-like implementation (or Etherium, something apparently Microsoft is looking into, by the way). Bitcoin acts like "digital cash" which is great for private transactions. I don't like the idea of privacy going out the window just because the digital realm is involved.

  • Reply 11 of 18
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    slprescott wrote: »
    Agreed.  My one disappointment with the iPad Pro announcement in September was lack of NFC.  Because of Apple's push into the Enterprise, including NFC in iPad Pro (and later in smaller iPads) seemed a perfect way to increase merchant support for Apple Pay by positioning iPad Pro as a Pay-enabled point-of-sales terminal.  But... it didn't happen.  Sigh...

    I mentioned this last year and got the usual fanboy defenses "why would you need ?Pay in your iPad? Who's gonna pull out an iPad to pay at the register lol"

    But I didn't think it would be this much work either. Didn't consider the banks getting involved, thought Apple could just add NFC and turn the function on.

    Anyone who's worked at a POS system knows how unintuitive and crappy they are. I'd like to see an Apple/IBM solution and a large scale iPad subsidy-like program from Apple. Basically deploy iPad POS systems to as much retailers on the planet as possible.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    Makes sense and the security comfort and familiarity Apple brings should make this fly, but good luck with the Australian banks taking this on, they are still resisting the basic ApplePay functionality.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    If Apple could release a free to use P2P payment system that took no money for any transaction, it would bring PayPal to its knees but only if the payment could be sent without both parties present.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    cali wrote: »
    Anyone who's worked at a POS system knows how unintuitive and crappy they are. I'd like to see an Apple/IBM solution and a large scale iPad subsidy-like program from Apple. Basically deploy iPad POS systems to as much retailers on the planet as possible.

    That will never happen.
  • Reply 15 of 18

    Just follow the UK Apple.  We already have this albeit not via Apple Pay but rather through Paym (using just mobile phone numbers), Barclays' Pingit App or TransferWise App.

  • Reply 16 of 18
    evilution wrote: »
    If Apple could release a free to use P2P payment system that took no money for any transaction, it would bring PayPal to its knees but only if the payment could be sent without both parties present.

    IMO, the ideal implementation would allow for a person with an iPhone to withdraw funds from their financial institution and keep the money on their phone in an encrypted form, a la Bitcoin, which could then be used as cash, completely anonymously. The only downside would be that if your phone was stolen or rendered unusable, you'd not have access to that digital cash, since it would only exist on that phone as part of a completely secure wallet, protected by Touch ID.
  • Reply 17 of 18
    Along with all of the benefits of person-to-person transfers, this would be great if it enabled all of the places using iPads for checkout (including Apple and all of the places that use Square) to accept Apple Pay.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    Just follow the UK Apple.  We already have this albeit not via Apple Pay but rather through Paym (using just mobile phone numbers), Barclays' Pingit App or TransferWise App.
    And in Canada, for the last 5 years or more, we can send money to anybody else in Canada via e-mail... Instant transfers (courtesy of Interac) from one bank account to another using a user configurable question and answer...
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