Apple is allegedly considering a move into person-to-person payments, and is said to be in discussions with banks and financial institutions in the United States over the potential service, according to a report. The rumored service could theoretically extend
Apple Pay to allow for personal payments between individuals conducted via iPhones, and would pit Apple directly against other similar payment processors, including
Venmo and
Square Cash.
According to sources of
the Wall Street Journal, talks are apparently taking place between Apple and the banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital One Financial, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bancorp, but it is unclear if any agreements have been made. Key points under discussion include technical details about how such a service would work with the existing infrastructure of the banking industry, with it pulling funds from one checking account to deposit in another.
If Apple is working on such a system, it is likely to be linked to Apple Pay rather than being a completely separate service. There is already the suggestion that it could take advantage of an existing person-to-person payment service, such as
clearXchange, which already works with many US banks for fund transfers between individuals via cell numbers or email addresses.
There is also the question of how Apple would benefit from introducing payments between individuals. Normal Apple Pay transactions have the banks themselves paying a fee, but it is claimed these fees would be waived for person-to-person payments. Apple may follow the lead of Venmo, in offering free transactions to consumers, but adding a small fee when payments involve credit card payments instead of checking accounts.
As for when such a service would become available to customers, it is suggested it will not launch anytime soon, but could still be implemented sometime next year.
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