Putin’s Russia has become the tenth country in the world where you can use your iPhone’s Apple Pay capability to pay for your Vodka, Caviar and what not. So, good news if you’re from the Russian Federation, as your country just joined one of the most select clubs in the world, together with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia. France, China, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore. Obviously, the common denominator in all these cases is Apple Pay’s availability.
With great technological achievements comes great responsibility and some risks, as electronic transactions and especially wireless ones are prone to hacking. And yes, Russia is the Mecca of hacking, if I may use that word. While I’m writing this piece, according to the Russian’s Tass-news agency, there’s only one bank which supports Apple Pay, Sberbank respectively, and the transactions are limited to only one type of card, Mastercard of course. But don’t worry, this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship between America’s most beloved corporation and the new Empire of Evil. Sberbank includes both credit and debit cards and you’ll require an iPhone 6 or newer to use the service or an Apple Watch.
According to previous experiences, in order to implement and integrate Apple Pay is not very easy, as it requires both new regulation put in place by the government and negotiations with vendors and banks. Vendors also require additional hardware, which is sort of expensive, hence the process will take a while. However, this model of business will be an instant hit in Russia’s main cities, the likes of St.Petersburg and Moscow, and over time more banks and businesses will get on board.
It’s also worth mentioning that Apple Pay expanded in the United Kingdom today via 2 new banks, Metro Bank and Co-Operative Bank, so if you’re a customer there you can check out the news with your local branch if you want to benefit from the service.