Apple has announced that its Apple Pay mobile payment service now has support from more than 20 new banks.
Apart from adding a number of major banks to its current roster of credit card issuing companies which have Apple Pay compatible cards, Apple said it has also added Credit Unions and some smaller regional financial institutions to the list. These new entries are said to be servicing some of the small regions in the United States or individual cities.
"Apple Pay works with many of the major credit and debit cards, including store-issued cards, from the top UK and US banks and stores," states the support page of Apple. "In Canada and Australia, Apple Pay works with credit and charge cards issued by American Express. Just add your supported cards and continue to get all the rewards, benefits, and security of your cards."
Apple seemed to focus heavily on building partnership with more merchant partners as part of its expansion plans for the service. It is expected that American Apparel should be able to support Apple Pay later this year. Other merchants that are lined up to accept Apple Pay include Starbucks, KFC, JCPenney, Dominos, Chili's, Cinnabon, Chick-fil-A, Crate & Barrel and American Apparel.
McDonald's is one of the early establishments to support Apple Pay. The company currently accepts the mobile payment service in all of its 14,000 branches sprawled across the United States. It also revealed that 50 percent of its "tap-to-pay" orders are transacted using the service.
Apart from McDonald's (and of course Apple Stores), merchants that have initially supported Apple Pay include American Eagle, Aeropostale, Bloomingdale's, Champs Sports, Chevron, Nike, Office Depot, RadioShack and Walgreens.
Outside the United States, Apple Pay is supported by banks from other regions such as Australia, Canada, Mainland China and the United Kingdom.
Here is the full list of new banks that were added in the United States.
1. Abacus Federal Savings Bank
2. BankFirst Financial Services
3. Colfax Banking Company
4. First Bank
5. First National Bank of Durango
6. Franklin First Federal Credit Union
7. Gulf States Credit Union
8. Henrico Federal Credit Union
9. Mill City Credit Union
10. Pasadena Federal Credit Union
11. Raleigh County Federal Credit Union
12. St. Landry Bank and Trust Co.
13. West Milton State Bank
14. 1st Community Federal Credit Union
15. Bank of England
16. Bull's Eye Credit Union
17. Columbia Bank Florida
18. First Federal Bank of Louisiana
19. First Southern National
20. Green Country Federal Credit Union
21. Guthrie County State Bank
22. Lone Star National Bank
23. Modern Woodmen Bank
24. PNC Bank, Global Investment Servicing
25. Sage Capital Bank
26. TCM Bank
