Could Apple finally be ready to unveil its mobile payment service?

A report from The Information is shedding new light on Apple’s plans for a mobile payment solution.


Even though there has been no news about the issue recently, the site
says Apple’s talks with payment industry executives have increased in
the past few months.


The big part of Apple’s system would apparently be the secure enclave found in the A7 chip of the iPhone 5s.
Currently, the enclave is designed to store scans from the pictured
Touch ID sensor. But that might change, according to the report:

Apple has told some partners its system would involve
a so-called secured element in the phones—a piece of hardware where
sensitive information such as a phone owner’s financial credentials can
be stored. The company also aims to run the system without giving up any
control to wireless carriers.

As of earlier this year,
Apple has more than 800 million credit cards on file, which is four
times more than e-commerce giant Amazon. That huge number gives Apple a
large amount of leverage to work with the payment processors.


In April, another report said that Apple was hiring senior executives for two new positions that deal with mobile payment issues.