Canadians have been waiting a long time for Android Pay, and it looks like the wait is almost up.
Android Pay is set to come to Canada on May 31, according to internal documents received by MobileSyrup. Google made the announcement earlier this month at its annual developer conference, but neglected to spell out a specific date. If the leak is to be believed, Canadians should be able to use their Android phones to pay at contactless-enabled retailers starting early next month.
It’s not clear which banks and payment processing systems will support Android Pay, but like Apple Pay it will likely be Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Interac, with all five major banks on board from the beginning.
Rumor has it that Android Pay took so long to come north of the border because Interac, Canada’s de facto debit standard, required significant internal restructuring to support Google’s payment system. A similar reason was given for Apple Pay’s delay, which was more than a year after it launched in the U.S. Samsung Pay is already available in Canada, but is limited to CIBC credit cards.
In the meantime, Canadians have been using their banks’ apps to make mobile payments; currently three of the Big Five banks — TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank and RBC — support mobile payments through the app, but Android Pay will negate the need to open a third-party app at all, and will enable fingerprint-enabled payments.
