Puerto Rico’s Banco Popular has introduced support for Apple Pay
Apple Pay is now officially available in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, as a prominent local bank has introduced support for the contactless payment service.
Though Apple Pay has been available in the United States for well over a decade, residents of Puerto Rico previously only had access to Apple Pay through accounts with major US banks. No local bank offered support for the service until now.
As spotted by MacRumors, and originally reported by multiple Spanish-language publications, Banco Popular has announced that it now supports Apple Pay. This means that iPhone and iPad users can add eligible Banco Popular credit and debit cards to the Apple Wallet app, allowing them to pay at any store location that accepts Apple Pay.
Apple Pay makes it possible to complete payments on an iPhone without the use of a physical card, but the service wasn’t an instant hit even in the continental US, where it first launched. The service experienced a gradual expansion over multiple years, so it’s no surprise that a Puerto Rican bank has only now introduced support.
In an October 2024 interview, the Vice President of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, Jennifer Bailey, explained that the company had to educate consumers and work with merchants to try and convince them to use the service. Apple “worked really hard on getting a great consumer experience.”
“Since its debut, when only about 3% of merchants accepted Apple Pay, the number has risen to “more than 90% coverage on the acceptance side,” according to Bailey. Apple wants to continue these endeavors and increase the overall availability of Apple Pay across different markets and credit card networks, with Puerto Rico’s Banco Popular being the latest to introduce support.
Alongside Tuesday’s Puerto Rico launch, Apple’s “Tap to Provision” feature has also been made available to users in Hong Kong, Macao, and Mongolia. This means that residents will be able to add compatible credit and debit cards to the Wallet app simply by tapping them with their iPhone.
Apple’s contactless payment service will soon be available to more users in Qatar and the UAE, as two major credit card networks from the region announced they’d be introducing Apple Pay support. In November 2024, the service officially launched in Paraguay, and it’s likely that additional banking institutions across the world will follow this trend.
