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The savings banks have responded to the issue of Apple Pay in a press release. Once again, they are sticking to old behavioral patterns.
This isn't the first time the umbrella association of savings banks has publicly made demands of Apple. After Apple Pay was announced for Germany, it demanded that the NFC interface be opened up so that it could offer its own mobile payment service. Now, the German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) has again commented on the issue. The statement states: "The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe is in talks with Apple about whether and how mobile payment can also be made available to users of Apple devices.” It continues: “In order not to slow down the further development of mobile payment solutions in this country, Apple should open up the industry standard NFC on its devices under reasonable conditions not only for its own solution but also for third parties.“
As everyone can already imagine, it is out of the question that Apple will open the NFC interface to third parties. For security reasons, the company has only set up a read mode, which allows RFID labels to be scanned, but data cannot be sent.
Are royalties the problem?
Observers suspect that the reason for the dispute lies in the license fees demanded by Apple. These are simply too high for the savings bank association - how long the association will continue to publicly oppose Apple Pay remains to be seen.
This attitude has brought the DSGV a lot of criticism, and the risk of losing more customers is increasing – this can be observed particularly well in various forums.
Fan starts petition
Nevertheless, all is not lost - there are already serious rumors that Apple Pay will also be introduced at savings banks at the end of next year. According to a report, the financial institution is working on the "Diamond" project.
This includes the implementation of Apple Pay in the general offering of the credit institution. Since the savings bank only makes two major updates a year, there are two possible dates for 2019. The “Release 19.0” is planned for April and “Release 19.1” for November 2019. According to the report, the Apple Pay launch is more likely to take place in the second update. So is the DSGV just playing poker?
During the whole discussion, a member of the Apfelpatient community started a petition. Anyone who would like to support it is cordially invited to sign it. Apple Pay also for Sparkasse customers
