Apple is making progress in the spread of its payment service in Switzerland: Graubuendner Kantonalbank, one of the country's regional state banks, will offer the necessary application to its customers.
Apple Pay in Switzerland has been on offer for about a month – and now Graubuendner Kantonalbank (GKB), which operates in touristic regions of St. Moritz and Arosa, has decided to offer its clients the use of the pay service, according to a statement by the bank on Tuesday.
Customers need a Swiss Bankers Mastercard Prepaid to be able to use the service and it has to be charged with a credit. The card costs 45 Swiss francs a year, while recharging is free.
Twint vs Apple Pay
GKB also offers the use of Twint as an alternative to Apple Pay. Twint recently agreed to a cooperation with Paymit to offer Swiss consumers a strong alternative against the system offered by the U.S. electronics giant.
In its bid to build market share, Apple has barred the NFC technology on its smartphones to alternative payment service providers. This will pose a significant challenge to providers, given the market share of iPhones. It was enough to convince Swiss telecommunications giant Swisscom to scrap its pay application Tapit.
Anti-Competitive?
Apple Pay meanwhile is able to connect to most Swiss retailers thanks to the NFC technology. Bluetooth, the technology Twint is built upon, isn't widely in use at shops in Switzerland.
The main Swiss consumer association has decided to challenge the Apple ban for external providers at the Swiss competition commission, hoping to force the U.S. giant to lift the bar.
