Apple Launching Peer-to-Peer Payments

New feature called Pay Cash will allow one user to pay another user through their smartphone.

June 06, 2017

NEW YORK – CNBC reports that Apple announced that its new iOS 11 mobile operating system (available later this year) will support peer-to-peer payments through a new feature called Pay Cash, “making it a direct competitor to similar services offered by Square Cash, PayPal, Venmo and Facebook.”

The news source says that peer-to-peer payments allow one user to pay another user through their smartphone for things like splitting a meal at a restaurant. Apple’s Pay Cash will allow users to send money to family and friends, transfer money to and from their bank account, and use it to access Apple Pay for purchases.

The Verge writes that “there’s a catch” with Pay Cash, in that peer-to-peer payments with Apple Pay will live inside iMessage, and it’s unclear at this time whether Apple will allow users to perform the payments outside of its own messaging app.

Also, The Verge says that money will be transferred to an “Apple Pay Cash Card,” noting that Apple has not verified whether money can then be transferred to a user’s own bank account. “That means Apple is not only coming for the Venmos of the world, but maybe the banks themselves,” writes the news source.

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