Alfa Bank has found a way to return Apple Pay functionality to the iPhone

“Alfa-Bank developers were the first in the country to gain access to the iPhone’s NFC chip. They came up with a way to pay in a simple and convenient way, like with Apple Pay, only from Alfa-Bank,” said a representative of the credit institution.

According to him, to pay you need to link a card in the banking application. “When a smartphone interacts with a banking terminal, technologies that are open to Apple are used, so nothing needed to be hacked, everything is legal,” the credit institution emphasized.

They noted that NFC technology is also available on many Android smartphones, but access to it is open to all developers, allowing it to be used free of charge for contactless payments.

Alfa Bank is ready to share development with other Russian credit institutions. “We intend to make this solution available to all participants in the payments market openly and free of charge,” said a bank representative.

He added that developers are actively testing the new functionality; The bank hopes to present it “to customers and the Russian market” already in 2025. The technology will allow you to pay for purchases with iPhone using cards from the Mir payment system.

Previously, in October, the National Payment Card System (NSCP, Mira operator) presented a prototype of Volna technology, which should also give iPhone owners the opportunity to pay for purchases by tapping the terminal with their smartphone. According to the developers, the technology will be able to work without the Internet “in combination with a new type of Bluetooth-compatible terminals.”

NSPK said that with Volna it will be possible to pay for purchases “at a slightly greater distance” from the terminal than when using NFC. The technology is planned to be integrated into banking applications. The NSPK did not set any deadline.