While Apple’s mobile payment option, Apple Pay, is widely available across the globe already, there are still places where the service is not available. Which means there’s still room to grow. And today, Apple can mark off yet another market.
Today, ING Belgium announced that it is now offering support for Apple Pay. The banking establishment says it has seen a huge increase in contactless payments recently, which means adopting support for Apple’s mobile payment option makes sense. There are 1.4 million ING Belgium customers eligible to use Apple Pay with their supported card(s).
As mentioned above, there have been a lot of contactless payments made by ING Belgium customers so far in 2021. According to today’s announcement, the bank has seen 51.5 million contactless payments through the first five months of this year. That’s compared to the 21.5 million the establishment saw over the first five months of 2020.
Per today’s announcement, a comment from ING Belgium’s Director of Payments, Amaury Vanthournout:
We’re constantly looking for new ways to help our customers manage their money even easier, and Apple Pay is a great fit. We’ve seen a major behavioural shift among our customers as a result of the pandemic, many of whom have become hesitant to use cash. Half of all payments are now contactless, a steep rise from 13% a year ago. By introducing Apple Pay in the ING Banking app, we are seizing the momentum by offering our customers a new payment method that offers incredible ease of use in shops, online and on the go.
With Apple Pay support now available for ING Belgium customers, this means they can use their iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and/or Mac to make mobile payments.
This is an extension of Apple Pay support by ING in general. The banking establishment already supports the mobile payment option in regions like the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Australia, Germany, France, and Italy. It’s been a bit of a wait for customers in Belgium, though, despite the fact Apple Pay actually launched in the region way back in 2018.
Better late than never, though, right?