Proper Support for Apple Pay in Canada Is Getting Closer ⇥ iphoneincanada.ca

Gary Ng:

PassKit source code within iOS 9.2.1 contains references to “NetworkInterac”, which is definitely evidence Apple Pay support from Canadian banks may be coming soon (thanks @chasefromm2016). […]

With Interac support from major Canadian banks, this would also likely include Visa and MasterCard support too, if it were to become available. Currently, Apple Pay in Canada only supports cards issued by American Express.

As I noted when Amex support launched in Canada, Interac accounts for a huge proportion of card-based purchases here. I believe Apple Pay will have the first full support for contactless Interac payments, with the exception of NFC-enabled cards themselves — even the carrier-owned Suretap app only has support for credit and gift cards. The only reference to previous Interac support on smartphones is for a small experiment offered by McDonald’s, RBC, and BlackBerry from 2013.