WSJ: Apple developing person-to-person mobile payment service that could launch in 2016

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According to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Apple is in talks with banks in the United States on a brand new person-to-person mobile payment service that would be rival to PayPal’s Venmo platform and could launch as soon as 2016.

According to people familiar with the ongoing talks, it’s unknown at this stage whether any of the banks have cut a deal with the iPhone maker and how the rumored service would tie into the banking industry’s existing infrastructure.

“The service under consideration would allow consumers to zap payments from their checking accounts to recipients through their Apple devices,” reads the report.

“The service would likely be linked to the company’s Apple Pay system, which allows customers to make credit-card and debit-card payments with their mobile phones,” writes author Robin Sidel.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook in The Independent today, Apple has no desire to enter the banking business. “Nobody wants to become a bank anymore,” he said. “And we don’t want to become a bank.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal