UPDATED 15:16 EST / JUNE 08 2015

NEWS

Apple Pay to launch in U.K. in July, rewards program coming | #WWDC15

Vice President of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey today announced that Apple Pay will launch in the U.K. in July, making it the first market outside the U.S. to support the new mobile payments service.

Apple Pay will also gain a number of new features in iOS 9 later this year, including the ability to add store credit and debit cards, as well as loyalty and rewards cards.

Starting in July, banks representing 70 percent of credit and debit card purchases in the U.K. will support Apple Pay. The banks include Ulster Bank, NatWest, Amex, Santander, RBS, Nationwide, HSBC and First Direct.

In the U.K., Apple Pay will be accepted at 250,000 merchant locations. This is more locations than accepted Apple Pay in the U.S. when the service first launched last year.

London’s commuters will be able to use Apple Pay on the Underground to pay for fares, while participating retailers include Marks & Spencer, Costa and Waitrose.

Store credit and debit cards from Kohl’s, JCPenney and BJ’s will be among the first to add Apple Pay support, with Dunkin’ Donuts slated to add support this fall.

Speaking about Apple Pay’s performance to date, Bailey stated that the mobile payments service will be accepted at more than 1 million locations by July and reported that in-app purchases using Apple Pay have nearly doubled.

She added that Apple is working with Square to enable small business to accept Apple Pay, with Square set to introduce a reader to accept Apple Pay this fall.

Pinterest will also add support for Apple Pay to its buyable pins in the coming weeks.

In addition, Apple said that “Passbook” is being renamed to “Wallet” – presumably to more accurately reflect its expanded functionality.

Image via apple.com

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