Apple Pay Coming to Israel By End of Year, Now Available at Bank of Ireland

Apple has signed an agreement with one of Israel's leading credit card companies to bring Apple Pay to the country by the end of the year, according to Ynet.

Isracard announced to the stock exchange that it has signed an agreement with Apple for four years that will allow its card to be used in Apple's digital payment method.

Apple has been in negotiations with financial institutions in the Middle East to bring ‌Apple Pay‌ to Israel since February. Apple routinely takes commission from national banking institutions in return for access to ‌‌Apple Pay‌, and it appears that Isracard is the first credit card company in the country to formulate an agreement with Apple.

Many Israeli businesses have already adopted the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) standard for mobiles, allowing customer account credentials to be loaded directly onto NFC-enabled smartphones and used in contactless transactions.

Unlike Android devices, Apple's devices don't allow access to the NFC chip through apps other than Apple's own Wallet app, which means financial bodies must sign an ‌‌Apple Pay‌‌ agreement that allows the card to be registered in the Wallet.

Apple maintains a complete list of the countries where ‌‌‌Apple Pay‌‌‌ is available on its support site, and we have a detailed Apple Pay roundup with everything you need to know about Apple's payments service.

Update: ‌Apple Pay‌ is also now available at Bank of Ireland.

(Thanks, Ohad and forum member iLoveDeveloping!)