Apple Pay not coming to UAE ‘in the near future’

Dubai: Consumers in the United Arab Emirates will have to wait until at least next year to make payments with Apple’s soon-to-be launched digital wallet, Apple Pay, according to MasterCard and Visa.

Apple Pay, unveiled this week at Apple’s new iPhone launch, will allow consumers to make payments using their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or Apple Watch in retail stores, instead of taking out their credit or debit card. For the payment system to work, consumers will have to hold their device against a special reader to pay for a product.

Marcello Baricordi, Visa’s general manager for the UAE and global accounts lead in the Middle East and North Africa, said that he expects Apple Pay to be available to Visa cardholders in the UAE “in the near future.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Oliver, MasterCard’s head of emerging payments for the Middle East and Africa, said that the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service, which is integrated with payments made through Apple Pay, is available in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, and will be in more international markets next year. He, however, was unable to say whether the UAE will be included in next year’s international roll-out.

Apple Pay will be available in the US starting next month, and will support credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Visa expects Apple Pay to be available in selected countries starting next year.

Apple Pay uses near-field communication (NFC) technology, which transmits a radio signal between the iPhone or Apple Watch and a receiver. With an iPhone, users will need to touch the device’s ‘home’ button, which acts as a fingerprint sensor. This will verify the buyer’s identity as the owner of the phone.

Upon registering a Visa card, a user receives a token, or a digital identifier, which is a number that identifies card data on their phone. This means that “if your phone is stolen, you replace the token and not the card,” Baricordi said. The token is transferred to the payment processor through encrypted communication, after which the card company connects the token to the user’s account.

Apple insists Apple Pay is secure because card numbers will not be stored on the device, nor on Apple’s servers.

The UAE has around 4,000 terminals that are used for contactless payments. Oliver said that the adoption of contactless payments in the UAE has not fully taken off. “Contactless payments in the UAE is in the process of building consumer adoption,” he said.

Retailers in the UAE are interested in supporting Apple Pay.

“We will definitely be interested in supporting Apple Pay once Apple makes the system available to retailers in this market,” said Nadeem Khanzadah, head of retail at Jumbo Electronics.