French site LesEchos (via iPhon.fr) is reporting that Apple Pay will be launching in France by the end of the year, but with a gradual rollout starting with a handful of major banks. It is expected to take 3-5 months between initial launch and the service being widely available in the country, with a pilot launch possibly in place by September.
Negotiations with banks are said to be proceeding slowly, with Apple’s cut of the transaction fee the main stumbling block. On a typical transaction, the banks would receive only 9 cents, and the standard Apple Pay deal applied in the U.S. would see Apple receiving 5 cents of this.
There is, however, hope that the issue can be resolved …
French banks are pointing to a precedent set in China, where Apple is believed to have agreed to halve its share of the standard 0.15% it charges U.S. banks. Fees were also an issue in negotiations leading up to the UK launch last summer, though terms were not disclosed.
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Apple’s cut is .15% in the US and .07% per transaction. In the euro zone the max a bank can charge is .2 on debit and .3% on credit card transactions. Hence why the rollout is Europe is basically a no go so far. The banks getting the higher percent of the fees then the credit networks and why Apple has been doing bank by bank deals.
3-6 months is better then the 18 month slow trickle of more and more banks
I will never understand why the commission is based on a percentage of the transaction. it should be, ah what’s the use; they make more money the more money is spend. Yeah, I get it, but it’s ridiculous.
I agree, and unfortunately, it is also one of the reasons why “big spenders” and rich people get their banking services “for free” and relatively poor people are confronted with high fees for basic services. I belief banks should offer fairly priced services with small fees for services one uses instead of cross-subsidizing their services to offer incentives for wealthy people.