Jamaicans will gain access to Apple Pay in 2025 when the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica (BNSJ) becomes the first local bank to partner with the US$3 trillion giant.

This was announced on Monday at Scotia Group Jamaica Limited’s (SGJ) media briefing. BNSJ is currently testing Apple Pay with staff who have credit cards, and is looking to add debit cards next to the pilot.

“Different entities have to make their services available in the specific regions and typically what they will do is they’ll make the decision to form partnerships with different FIs (financial institutions) to enter into specific markets. Apple Pay is a pretty good example. We have done all the internal work required to launch Apple Pay and we have done so in specific markets where the agreements have been finalized with Apple,” said Perrin Gayle, SGJ’s head of retail banking and small business, Caribbean North and Central, on the introduction of Apple Pay to Jamaica.

Jamaicans could always use Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay and even their smartwatches to make contactless payments at point of sale (POS) machines in Jamaica. However, they would have had to add a card approved by Apple or the other payment partners in order to use these alternative payment processors.

With BNSJ bringing Apple Pay to Jamaica, citizens will join more than 500 million persons globally to use the service, according to Statista. As per GlobalStats Counter, iOS (Apple’s operating system) has a 42.79 per cent market share in Jamaica while Android leads with 56.9 per cent market share. Samsung is estimated to have 0.3 per cent market share in the Jamaican market.

According to CapitalOne Shopping, Apple Pay processed US$6 trillion in payments for 2022 which is just behind Visa which processed US$10 trillion. Apple Pay also represented five per cent of all global transactions in 2020.

Apple Inc had its major launch event on Monday where it announced the new iPhone 16, new AirPods and Apple Watch Series 10. The iPhone is Apple’s biggest money maker and represented 52 per cent or US$154.96 billion of Apple’s nine months’ revenue totalling US$296.11 billion.

“In Jamaica, for example, we’re currently testing Apple Pay. I have access to Apple Pay with my Jamaican credit card. I’m able to shop with it online, to shop in stores; it works. It is something that we’re piloting internally with staff members, but until the formal agreement is reached with Apple to formally launch in country, we’re not able to make it available to the public. What we can say is that we’ve done all the internal work. Our app does allow for it to work, and it works well. When the time comes, we’ll be able to launch it seamlessly having already gone through testing. The same will happen with Samsung Pay which will come at a late date as well and we’re currently going through the development to allow for debit cards to also work on Apple Pay,” Gayle added.

Although Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are both well known, Jamaicans are also interested in Google Pay which is another payment alternative offered by Alphabet Inc. However, BNSJ will not be making that option available in Jamaica despite its sister operations in the Cayman Islands and Dominican Republic having access to Google Pay.

When asked why Google Pay wouldn’t be added to Jamaica, Gayle responded, “So, currently, what we’re currently working on is only Apple [Pay], but the comment kind of touches on most entities. They decide which markets they want to operate in. The FIs will typically work with them as they go through a development period to make sure that our apps, online services, can tie in to the various platforms. So, there’s a lot of work being done because we’re an international bank. So, we do provide these services in other territories where it is available, and once it becomes available in Jamaica, because that work is already done, we’ll be able to offer that to the public.”

BNSJ added contactless payment availability at POS devices with smartwatch maker Garmin in 2023.

BNSJ’s announcement of the new payment partners comes months after it added RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) capabilities to its online banking platform and mobile application in mid-May. However, it was taken off both digital portals in June before being added back in mid-August.

BNSJ is also seeking to add online wire transfer capabilities and allow for more customers to do these international transfers by themselves. As it currently stands, in order to initiate an outgoing wire transfer, a client has to fill out a form or email a banking representative to start this process.

“Today in Jamaica, our international payment system is still built on SWIFT, and we still largely receive and remit international payments via an old payment methodology which still exists globally called wire transfers. In order to receive international payments, largely, we’re doing that through the SWIFT program which is managing that through wire transfers. A number of institutions, including ourselves, we’re bringing new payment platforms to the market. Apple Pay is coming to the market, but again, it will be within the local market operations,” said SGJ President and Chief Executive Officer Audrey Tugwell Henry.

The entry of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay to the Jamaican markets comes just a year after NCBJ launched NCB Pay in March 2023. That allowed for NCBJ customers to use their mobile phones pay at POS devices either locally or internationally. That move is set to be followed by the ongoing development to allow peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers via NCBJ’s card rails to allow 24/7 transfers with anyone that has a Visa or Mastercard branded card. NCBJ has an estimated 70 per cent market share of the 29,212 POS devices in the Jamaican market and dominates the credit card market as well.

TFOB (2021) Limited, operators of the Lynk mobile app, have also been working to get regulatory approval for the issuance of a digital Visa card. Lynk just recently added Western Union remittance acceptance in May through a partnership with GraceKennedy Limited. This was the second remittance partner for Lynk after it added MoneyGram in 2023.

According to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), $1 trillion in transactions were processed at POS devices in 2023 with US$870.04 million processed on POS devices in Jamaica. Jamaica also had US$3.34 billion in remittance inflows for 2023 as well.