Payments technology provider Elavon says it is among the first payment processing companies to offer Apple Pay to Canadian businesses.
Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, is bringing Apple Pay's contactless Near Field Communication capability to its current EMV point of sale terminals in Canada.
"Elavon has been an early supporter of mobile payments, and Canadians continue to demonstrate their interest in adopting new payment technologies," said Mia Huntington, vice president of Elavon in Canada, in a Jan. 4 press release.
Bringing Apple Pay to Elavon terminals addresses an increasing consumer demand for contactless payments, while also allowing Canadian businesses to offer customers the convenience of paying through an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, Huntington added.
Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay, and when a consumer adds a credit card to Apple's mobile wallet, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, or on Apple servers, Elavon notes in the release.
In the same way it operates in the U.S., Apple Pay will create a unique Device Account Number that is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the secure element on the device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.
To pay, consumers hold their mobile device near the contactless reader, exactly as they would a contactless card. The payment information is then passed to the POS system once the consumer confirms the transaction using the Touch ID fingerprint on their device.
