Phone pay system is Apple of AIB’s eye

THE ‘kerching’ at the tills may soon be a rarely heard sound – as another major Irish bank signed up to the Apple Pay system yesterday.

Now, any AIB account-holders with iPhones can pay for small transactions up to €30 in thousands of shops by simply waving their mobile at the terminal.

The system has already been taken up by Ulster Bank and KBC, but its failure to attract one of the ‘Big Two’ banks – AIB and Bank of Ireland – at its launch in March led it to being called an ‘anti-climax’.

However, that has now been rectified with AIB’s announcement.

Shops using the Apple Pay system include SuperValu, Dunnes, Lidl, Aldi, Centra and Marks & Spencer. AIB’s Fergal Coburn said of the move: ‘It’s about making banking more convenient for AIB customers. Supporting Apple Pay is the latest in a number of innovative, customer-focused developments that cement digital banking as an essential part of our customers’ daily lives.’

The move was welcomed by the Consumers’ Association of Ireland – although CAI chief Dermott Jewell warned users to be wary of potential fraud.

He said: ‘It’s a speedy process and facilitates movement in so many ways and it’s safe. But it never gets away from the reality that you have to be more personally aware of the risks of ease of use by a third party and that’s where consumers are going to have to be very, very careful.’

However, Apple said the system is ‘secure and private’, and added: ‘When you use a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device.

‘Each transaction is authorised with a onetime unique dynamic security code.’