British financial tech company Curve has launched contactless payments for iPhone users in the European Union, reports iphone-ticker.de. Curve is the second third-party payment service (PayPal was the first) to take advantage of Apple’s opening up of NFC to third-party developers.
Companies like Curve can now offer contactless payments on the iPhone thanks to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which required Apple to allow access to the iPhone’s NFC chip to outside developers. Third-party payment systems can now offer their own contactless payments solutions without being required to use Apple Pay or the Wallet app.
Curve Pay doesn’t operate like traditional wallet apps, instead it operates as an independent payment authority rather than simply passing through stored card data. Curve users can reassign purchases to different cards after completing transactions and can link multiple payment sources, including PayPal.
The Curve Pay app also offers real-time spending analytics, as well as automated cashback programs. Its “staged wallet” architecture is designed to offer users more control over the payment process, when compared to conventional digital wallets.
Already available on Android, Curve Pay is now also available for Apple devices. According to the company, over six million people use the service.
NFC access is available for banking and wallet apps in the European Economic Area, which includes the 27 European Union countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
