NatWest Now Offers Apple Pay To Small Businesses

U.K.-based NatWest has introduced Apple Pay to its 1 million small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business banking customers, giving them more options to make payments on the go, LearnerBonds reported on Tuesday (Nov. 5).

NatWest Commercial and Private Banking COO James Holian said that with Apple Pay, SMEs can make secure, fast payments “leaving them with more time to get on with doing what they do best — running their business.”

With Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device or Apple servers. Instead, a unique device account number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.

The news comes as Apple Pay was named the most popular mobile payment app in the U.S., overtaking Starbucks, according to data firm eMarketer. In 2018, some 27.7 million Americans used Apple Pay to make purchases. By the end of this year, that number is expected to increase to 30.3 million.

By the end of this year, Starbucks is expected to have 25.2 million users and Google Pay is forecast to have 12.1 million users. 

In related news, Goldman Sachs doled out about $10 billion in credit lines in just over month for the new Apple-branded credit card. 

The Apple Card offers users the option to gain 3 percent cash back when paying for Apple products and services, as well as at Uber, Uber Eats, T-Mobile, Walgreens and Duane Reade. The cash-back benefit will be added to more merchants in the future. There are no fees with the card, which integrates with Apple Pay and the iOS Wallet app.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called the Apple Card “the most successful credit-card launch ever,” in an October investor call. 

The Apple Card is Goldman Sachs’s latest inroad into the retail consumer business after establishing its online Marcus brand in 2016, which makes unsecured personal loans. The firm is intentionally slowing down Marcus because of the exposure it has taken on with Apple Card.