VR Girocard without Apple Pay on the iPhone: Volksbanks take longer

The Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken need more time to make their Girocard Fit for iPhone payments. It was originally planned to integrate a corresponding payment function into the VR banking app for iOS from September 5-a novelty in Germany because it should work outside of Apple Pay. However, nothing will become of this: the market launch has to be “moved a little”, as the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanken (BVR) last week Maid LinkedInwithout naming a new time frame. Apparently there are still quality problems. The development is “well advanced, but has not yet been completed,” says the cooperative banks.

First Apple Pay alternatives started

The BVR has been drumming for a “independent payment solution” for a long time. What is meant regardless of the platform operator, as in this case Apple. For a long time, no way around Apple Pay or the Apple Wallet led on iPhones for contactless payments at the box. Only after an EU competition procedure and with regard to the Digital Markets Act, the manufacturer saw itself forced to open the NFC interface in iOS.

For several months now, other apps in the European Economic Area than standard wallets have been allowed to act on iPhone and enable contactless payments. The standard wallet receives all the advantages for comfortable payment processes that were previously also reserved for Apple Pay, including automatic activation when approaching NFC cash terminals. So far, with PayPal and Curve, only two providers have started with their own NFC-capable wallets.

Girocard in Apple Pay relatively rare

All of these mobile payments usually rely on credit and debit cards for processing. The Girocard have so far integrated a few banks into Apple Pay, including the Sparkassen and Commerzbank. Users who have only integrated credit cards or a MasterCard debit card into their Apple Wallet cannot pay on some cash terminals-if only the Girocard, which is still ref incorrectly referred to as an EC card, is accepted there.

In the spring, the association left open whether the Volksbanks, in addition to the Girocard, also integrate their credit and other debit cards into the VR banking app for iOS. A complete withdrawal from Apple Pay does not seem to be planned in the meantime: People’s and Raiffeisen banks are still open to offer a virtual Mastercard for Apple Pay, it said in April.