Apple Pay has launched in Ireland, making it the 14th country in which Apple’s biometrically secured mPayment service is available.

It arrived with the support of Ulster Bank and KBC, as well as the Boon app, which lets users pay with Apple Pay using digital prepaid cards. Merchant partners include Applegreen, Centra, Guinness Storehouse, and Insomnia; and, as The Irish Times reports, the contactless payment terminals needed to support Apple Pay transactions “are widely available in Ireland,” suggesting the service could eventually see widespread use.

The platform arrives in Ireland ahead of its friendly competitor Samsung Pay, but a few months behind Android Pay. Ireland was one of the few markets in which the latter platform was first among the major competitors to debut, but given that the services operate on different device ecosystems, they are unlikely to affect each other’s market share.

Meanwhile, the sudden appearance of an Apple Pay section on the Italian version of Apple’s website suggests an imminent launch in that country, with support from Carrefour, UniCredit, and Boon listed. Nevertheless, it isn’t yet clear if the service will materialize first in Italy or in Taiwan, with the latter’s financial regulator having recently granted approval for several major banks to offer Apple Pay support.

Sources: The Irish Times, MacRumors, AppleInsider

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(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)