Despite 1 Million Cards on Apple Pay, Chase Sees ‘Need to Be Everywhere’ (March 9, 2015)
JPMorgan Chase isn’t putting all of its mobile payments eggs (or apples) in one basket. After successfully activating more than 1 million payment cards on Apple Pay, Chase recently told investors it has plans for its own digital wallet.
During the bank’s investor day last month, Chase shared key data on its Apple Pay users. For example, Apple Pay-linked cards are held by customers who tend to be younger and higher-earning than the bank’s average customer. But while Apple Pay’s early adoption and usage stats are impressive, the platform is available only on the company’s iPhone 6 models, leaving many potential users unreachable via the service, including millions of customers with Android-based mobile devices. “While the wallet market is very fragmented today, we believe we need to be everywhere,” said Eileen Serra, CEO of Chase Card Services, during a conference call to investors. “We don’t want a Chase customer not to be able to use their card in any wallet. So we’re supporting the different wallets that are out there. We’re also building out our own capabilities as well because, again, what’s most important to us is that consumers have choice.”
Among the bank’s new online/mobile initiatives is Chase Pay, a service that supports digital payments to e-merchants without requiring customers to enter account, billing and shipping details. The bank piloted the program in late 2014 and plans to roll it out nationwide this year.
Chase isn’t the only bank with significant customer participation in Apple Pay. In January Bank of America Merrill Lynch said 1.1 million of its cards had been provisioned for use with the service.
See related stories:
