ING bank releases Apple Pay in Belgium – IT Pro – News

ING Belgium has made Apple Pay available to its Belgian customers. The bank has already done so in the Netherlands. The service is used by adding the ING debit card via Apple’s Wallet app.

ING Belgium makes clear that customers can link their debit card to the Apple Pay, which goes through the Wallet app. These regular debit cards can be used for wireless payments, but this is not yet possible with credit cards. The bank says they will be added at a later stage. It is unknown when that will be the case.

The company says that Apple Pay fits well with the current picture of payments in Belgium. According to the bank, 13 percent of all payments were made wirelessly a year ago, but this has now increased to half of all payments, partly due to the corona pandemic. In the first five months of this year, there were 51.5 million contactless payments, compared to 21.5 million in the same period last year.

The ING bank has been offering Apple Pay for some time in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Australia and Germany. In Belgium, the bank BNP Paribas Fortis has been offering Apple Pay since the end of 2018. In the Netherlands the service became available more than two years ago. At the time, ING was the only bank in the Netherlands to officially support the service, but the necessary banks were added later.

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