VR Girocard without Apple Pay on the iPhone: Volksbanks take longer
The VR Banking app was supposed to enable contactless iPhone payments with Girocard at the beginning of September – bypassing Apple. The deadline cannot be met.
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The Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken need more time to make their Girocard fit for iPhone payments. The original plan was to integrate a corresponding payment function into the VR banking app for iOS from September 5 – - a first in Germany, as this is supposed to work outside of Apple Pay. However, this will not happen for the time being: the market launch will have to be "postponed a little longer", as the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR) announced on Linkedin last week, without giving a new time frame. Apparently there are still quality problems. Development is "well advanced, but not yet complete", according to the cooperative banks.
First Apple Pay alternatives launched
The BVR has been campaigning for an "independent payment solution" for some time. This means independent of the platform operator, in this case Apple. For a long time, there was no way around Apple Pay or Apple Wallet for contactless payments at the checkout on iPhones. The manufacturer was only forced to open up the NFC interface in iOS following EU competition proceedings and in view of the Digital Markets Act.
For several months now, other apps have therefore been allowed to operate as standard wallets on the iPhone in the European Economic Area and enable contactless payments. The standard wallet receives all the benefits for convenient payment transactions that were previously also reserved for Apple Pay, including automatic activation when approaching NFC checkout terminals. In Germany, however, only two providers, PayPal and Curve, have launched their own NFC-enabled wallets so far.
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Girocard in Apple Pay relatively rare
All of these mobile payments usually rely on credit and debit cards for processing. Only a few banks have integrated the Girocard into Apple Pay so far, including the savings banks and Commerzbank. Users who have only integrated credit cards or a Mastercard debit card into their Apple Wallet, for example, cannot pay at some checkout terminals. If they only accept the Girocard, which is still often incorrectly referred to as an EC card.
In the spring, the association left open whether the Volksbanks would also integrate their credit and other debit cards into the VR banking app for iOS in addition to the Girocard. Meanwhile, a complete withdrawal from Apple Pay does not appear to be planned: Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken are still free to offer a virtual Mastercard for Apple Pay, it was stated in April.
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