U.S.: With Apple Pay Launch Imminent–a Rundown of Key Participants and Suppliers

Apple’s cult-like following and reputation for rolling out easy to use, polished services is creating much anticipation for the launch of Apple Pay, which is expected to happen this week.

But Apple Pay offers little that is new with its NFC payments platform, although its use of tokens to replace primary account numbers is one of the first major deployments of this architecture with an open-loop payments platform. In addition, the relatively small percentage of merchant locations accepting contactless payments in the U.S. could give consumers some problems finding a place to tap to pay. And Apple is not apparently offering incentives for consumers to make NFC payments. Discounts and other offers tied to payments could come with future versions of Apple Pay, perhaps using Apple’s iBeacon technology.

But Apple’s ability to bring together the top card issuers and payment networks in the U.S. along with offering an easy enrollment and payment process for consumers will ensure that NFC will get a tryout like no other in the U.S. And Apple is expected to expand to other continents next year. U.S. issuers have agreed to pay .15% of each transaction to Apple to be part of Apple Pay, sources agree. It remains to be seen what type of revenue sharing deal, if any, Apple could wring from banks outside of the U.S., especially where interchange or merchant transaction fees are much lower.