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Apple Pay available to French Visa cardholders

Visa says that Visa debit and credit cardholders from French banks Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE group) now have access to Apple Pay which launches today.

Apple Pay can be used at any of the contactless Point of Sale terminals used millions of times

Apple Pay

Apple Pay available to French Visa cardholders

each day by Visa cardholders throughout France.

Gérard Nébouy, Regional Managing Director France, commented: “Consumer demand for contactless payments combined with the huge popularity of smartphones incorporating NFC technology has put in place a foundation for a shift from plastic to digital.

With today’s launch of Apple Pay, it is clear that mobile solutions will fast become a popular way to use a Visa card. French people are really enthusiastic for new ways to pay using the devices they carry each day, and we are proud to be taking an active part in enabling this transformation of commerce.”

France already has over 400,000 merchant locations live with contactless payment today, with mandates in place for all merchants to accept Visa contactless payment by 2020.

Key Visa contactless figures in France (via VisaNet):

  • 213 million contactless transactions processed by Visa in 2015
  • More than 25 million contactless Visa cards in circulation, with over 577,000 contactless POS terminals in merchants (May 2016)
  • €2.2 billion spent with Visa contactless cards in the 12 months to May 2016 (€286 million spent via contactless cards issued in France, during the month of May 2016)

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