Apple Pay rumors wrong again as service not switched on in Korea

Apple Pay's Korea service is still being reviewed by regulators and no date has been given for approval.

People pass by an Apple store in Seoul on Oct. 4. [NEWS1]

Apple Pay's Korea service is still being reviewed by regulators and no date has been given for approval.

“We’re still looking over the service’s terms and conditions, and we can’t confirm when the review will be complete at this point,” said Do Yeong-suk, a spokesperson for the Financial Supervisory Service's PR team.

The regulator is reviewing clauses to determine whether the service protects customers and follows the law.

Apple Pay in Korea has been the subject of much rumor and speculation, the latest being that the service would be available from Nov. 30.

Neither Apple Pay nor Hyundai Card, which reports say has signed an agreement to support the service locally, have commented.

An Apple Pay in Korea has been mentioned in the local press for years. The expectation grew in recent months when a Korean iPhone user posted on Naver what appears to be terms and conditions for the use of Apple Pay in Korea. Some iPhone users claimed to have registered their Hyundai Cards with their iPhones in October.

An advertisement in a taxi promoting Apple Pay’s rollout with Hyundai Card was captured and spread online on Tuesday raising expectations.

Payment terminals at some cafes are being updated to support near-field communication (NFC), which is needed to process Apple Pay payments.

Ediya Coffee, the coffee chain with the largest number of stores in Korea, announced last week it will update the payment terminals to support NFC. The terminal will start being updated from December.

The chain has about 3,000 locations.

Starbucks already supports NFC at all of its stores, according to Park Han-jo, a spokesperson for the coffee chain. The company has not yet decided whether to support Apple Pay.

Lotte Hi-Mart said it does not support NFC. Lotte Department Store said some of the old terminals have been updated to newer versions that supports NFC, but the payment using the technology is currently “impossible at stores,” Lotte Shopping said in a statement.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]