Apple Pay spreads its wings to five big Singapore banks, 30,000 local retail stores

While Samsung Pay arguably eclipses its iOS-compatible digital wallet rival in convenience, with both NFC and MST support, also driving fast adoption thanks to frequent compelling deals and freebies, it still can’t hold a candle to Apple Pay in terms of global availability.

The same obviously goes for Android Pay, which like its Galaxy-supporting competitor is only live in a few countries, with Cupertino today adding Singapore to a much heftier list that includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and China as well.

Technically, Singapore was first introduced to on-the-go, super-secure iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch transactions last month, but a proper, wide-scale local rollout to Mastercard and VISA credit and debit card holders has begun mere hours ago.

American Express is therefore no longer the sole financial partner of Apple around those parts, with five participating banks listed on apple.com/sg/apple-pay. These are DBS, OCBC, POSB, Standard Chartered, and UOB, which reportedly account for a whopping combined 80 percent of credit and debit cards issued in Singapore.

As such, users of the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 6, 6 Plus, SE or Apple Watch paired with an iPhone 5 or later in the Southeast Asian country will be allowed to store their banking info on their gadgets, and then authorize digital payments with fingerprints or one touch at 30,000 retail points, including Starbucks, Topshop, 7 Eleven, FairPrice, MarketPlace, and Uniqlo.

Besides contactless payments in various physical stores, Apple Pay of course simplifies app transactions, with the Apple Store, Uber and HomeAway Asia the openers of that particular road in Singapore. Up next, France?