Visa and Wirecard offer Apple Pay in Switzerland
Stefan Holbein, country manager Visa Europe Switzerland
One million Visa cardholders in Switzerland now have access to the newly launched Apple Pay. Wirecard is now providing its clients with Apple Pay support too (see below for details).
Cornèrcard and Bonuscard.ch customers will be able to use Apple Pay, which can be used at any of the over 100,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals in Switzerland. By 2020, Visa says all its payment terminals will accept contactless payments.
Stefan Holbein, country manager Visa Europe Switzerland, says: “Given the iPhone population in Switzerland is extremely high, the launch of Apple Pay is sure to make it the most convenient mobile payment solution for Switzerland.”
The companies say Apple Pay can be used wherever Visa contactless payment is accepted. To accept Visa with Apple Pay, retailers “do not need any changes” to terminals or point-of-sale infrastructure, since mobile payments work with the same technology as contactless Visa card payments.
Both firms say contactless payment is rapidly developing in Europe. During the 12 months to April 2016, Visa Europe facilitated three billion contactless payments.
They say that in Europe, contactless payments via cards or smartphones represent one in five Visa transactions at payment terminals. Compared to 2014, this proportion has increased from 4.1% to 21.1%.
Meanwhile…
In a separate announcement, Wirecard, a payment service provider, says it will also offer its customers Apple Pay in Switzerland.
Wirecard integrates Apple Pay in its Mobile SDK solution. It says this is a “benefit” for online merchants as they can now work with Wirecard to enable mobile e-commerce payments “quickly and easily”.
Wirecard says it is the first qualified payment service provider for Apple Pay in Switzerland.
From now on, the firm says Swiss customers will be able to make purchases everywhere – in online shops or at the point of sale (POS) using their bank cards wherever contactless payments are accepted.
