Apple is in talks with several financial institutions to develop a person-to-person mobile payment service akin to PayPal’s Venmo platform, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Though details of the possible deal remain scant, potential partners reportedly include JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Capital One and U.S. Bancorp.
The WSJ report said the service would be tied to Apple Pay and would allow users to send payments from their checking accounts directly to an intended recipient using their Apple device.
According to the WSJ, the service could launch as early as next year.
The move comes as Apple looks to differentiate itself from a growing field of mobile payment options – which now includes competitors like Samsung Pay that has convenient magnetic stripe technology – and integrate itself into the everyday lives of its users.
A year after its launch, Apple Pay adoption has remained low, accounting for just one percent of retail transactions in the United States. By August 2015, Apple Pay even showing signs of decline, as the percentage of Apple customers utilizing the service dropped from 15.1 percent to 13.1 percent between the first and second quarters of the year.
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