The savings banks consider the introduction of Apple Pay in addition to their own Payment App for your customers.

“The savings banks and landesbanken in Germany are continuously working to improve their payment solutions for your customers. In this context, we have very positive discussions with Apple, to find out how we can introduce Apple Pay to all of our customers,” said a spokesman for the German savings banks and Giro Association (DSGV) on Monday on request.

The iPhone payment service Apple Pay was launched at the end of 2018 in Germany. Users can pay in the Store with the iPhone or the Apple Watch, such as a credit card. Simply hold the device to the Terminal. The Treasury technology must be able to support contactless payment.

This is now available in almost all supermarkets in Germany. “The technical architecture behind Apple Pay offers consumers a highly secure and private solution that is of interest to our customers,” said the DSGV spokesman.

The co-operative banks are because of Apple Pay “still in testing and in conversation with Apple”.

Apple Pay works in Germany so far, with credit or debit cards, among other things, the Deutsche Bank, N26, HypoVereinsbank, Santander and Comdirect Bank and American Express. Whether in the case of a possible co-operation with the Sparkassen in Germany, popular Girocard (EC card) is involved, was initially unclear. With Apple Pay you can pay in trade, Restaurants, and other shops, if they are equipped with suitable Terminals. The service, however, occurs also in the Online trade as a competitor to services like PayPal.

the savings banks and cooperative banks to offer since last year, their own Payment Apps. This will work for contactless payments, however, only on Smartphones with the Google Android operating system, because you can’t access on the iPhone to the NFC radio chip.

“We have set for the market launch of our product on Android, since around 80 percent of mobile phone owning owners in Germany a device with this operating system,” said a spokeswoman of the Federal Association of the Volks – and Raiffeisen banks (BVR). Apple partners such as Deutsche Bank reports, meanwhile, that the iPhone users to make contactless payments with Apple have taken Pay much faster than Android users to Pay with the Bank’s own App.

The in-house solution to the savings banks for mobile payments on Android devices, the Girocard can be involved, is offered according to the DSGV, in the meantime, more than 360 of the 384 savings banks. For around 900 cooperative banks, there are currently 514 institutions.

According to the Federal citizens Seem however, to and coins. Annually, around 20 billion transactions in the retail sector, most be made with Cash. Three of the four payments at the checkout are handled according to the German Bundesbank in cash. Especially in the case of small contributions, the people Seem to and coins. As measured by the total sales in the German retail trade, the cash share was according to recent data, at 51.3 percent.

dpa