Barclays will not offer Apple Pay support until 2016
Barclays has announced that it will support Apple Pay from early 2016. The bank has been the highest profile hold out in the UK, since others such as Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland have been signed up to Apple Pay since July this year.  

Barclays has been the most high profile UK financial institution holding back from Apple Pay but an email exchange between the bank’s CEO and a customer revealed its intentions.

Programmer Mike Jobson complained via email to Ashok Vaswani, the CEO of personal and corporate banking at Barclays, about why the bank does not support Apple Pay for NFC-based payments at the point-of-sale, unlike leading rivals.

“I am writing to you to complain about the complete lack of attention and care you have paid to your customers over the Apple Pay situation you seem to be ignoring,” said Jobson’s email, according to his latest blog.

“You only have to look at comments on your social media output to see that most customers want Apple Pay and are prepared to switch banks for it. Why don’t you just get on the Apple Pay train before you get left behind?” he queried.

Vaswani replied with an explanation of the bank’s plans, which involve a launch of Apple Pay early in 2016.

“We have signed up for Apple Pay and will launch it very early in the New Year. We truly value your custom and hope that you continue to bank with us, particularly since we are launching this shortly,” he wrote in response.