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After Apple Pay was announced for Germany, the first voices are calling for Apple to open up its NFC interface. Nadja Hirsch, chairwoman of the FDP in the European Parliament, said, "Apple must also open this up to other providers." Otherwise, EU Competition Commissioner Vestager should force the company to do so.
On Wednesday, several banks already commented on the topic of Apple Pay, including Sparkasse with the following comment: “You will hear from us in the coming week. We will announce something then.” The credit institution left everything open. In the days that followed, the in-house customer service gave customers hope and informed them that the banking association would introduce Apple Pay. Individual savings banks also made near-commitments on Twitter.
Now the service hammer comes from the official “service channel” of the Sparkasse on Twitter:
Savings banks and soon also cooperative banks offer their customers a system for mobile payment that is technically open for both Android devices and iPhones. It is up to Apple to release the corresponding NFC interface for the banking industry.
One thing is clear: Sparkasse is currently pursuing a strange communication policy. As everyone can already imagine, it is out of the question that Apple will open the NFC interface to third-party providers. The company has only set up a read mode, which allows RFID labels to be scanned, but data cannot be sent. It remains to be seen what Sparkasse has to say next week, but above all we would like a clear statement - as other financial institutions have already done.
