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The
iPhone maker has struck deals recently with China's big four
state-run banks, the newspaper reported late Monday, citing
people familiar with the discussions. (http://on.wsj.com/1LwSf8O)
When launched, Apple Pay will mainly compete with Alipay, the
online payment platform run by Alibaba Holding Group Ltd <BABA.N>
affiliate Ant Financial, and UnionPay Co, a state-controlled
consortium that has a monopoly on all yuan payment cards issued
and used in the country.
Apple's plans could still face regulatory hurdles in China,
where banking and e-commerce are overseen by a number of
government agencies, WSJ said.
"We have nothing to announce at this time," an Apple spokeswoman
in China said in an email to Reuters.
Launched in the United States in October last year, Apple is
bringing its payment service to China, the most important market
for smartphones. The company's sales nearly doubled in Greater
China in its fiscal fourth quarter from a year earlier.
The amount Apple would make off such transactions has been a
sticking point in negotiations to bring Apple Pay to China, the
Journal quoted the people as saying.
It is also not clear how much Apple would charge for purchases
made through Apple Pay in China. The company gets 0.15 percent
of all credit card transactions and 0.5 cents per debit
transaction in the United States, the paper said.
In July, Apple brought its mobile payments service to Britain to
capitalize on the increasing mobile online transactions.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar
Warrier)
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