Apple Pay (Kind Of) Launches in Canada ⇥ mercurynews.com

Gary Ng:

Apple Pay is now live in Canada…

Woohoo!

…with support for American Express cardholders

Crap.

According to a 2010 Canadian government report (PDF), American Express garnered a mere 5% share of purchase volume in 2009, compared to 20% for MasterCard and 40% for Visa. Our banks’ proprietary debit transaction form, Interac, had a 35% share of purchase volume.

Anick Jesdanun reports for the Associated Press:

Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president for Apple Pay, said the company is starting with American Express in Canada and Australia because it’s both the card issuer and the payment-network operator, so coordination is easier. With Visa and MasterCard, individual banks issue the cards, and each bank has its own way of verifying a customer’s identity when setting up Apple Pay, for instance.

For giggles, I tried adding my bank-issued Visa card to Apple Pay; it was, of course, rejected. Keep your eyes peeled for changes to this file; specifically, the PaymentSetupFeaturedNetworks key.