Android Pay received support for five more banks in the United States as part of its latest expansion that started on Monday. Google’s mobile payments solution now supports cards issued by the O Bee Credit Union, Florence Savings Bank, Barksdale Federal Credit Union, Security State Bank Of Hibbing, and the J.S.C. Federal Credit Union. The move marks Google’s latest attempt to expand the Android Pay ecosystem and bring it to as many consumers as possible, at least in the context of the company’s home country that also happens to be its key market.
The addition of the banks listed above marks the second expansion of Android Pay in April, as the mobile payments tool already received support for 13 other financial institutions last week. In total, the service extended its reach to more than 150 new banks since the turn of the year, indicating that Google is ramping up its efforts to expand its reach over the course of 2017. Regardless, the Mountain View-based tech giant is still seemingly focused on improving the Android Pay experience in the United States, while Canada and several other countries that were already expected to receive the service still don’t have access to it. Previous reports suggested that the Alphabet-owned company is close to launching Android Pay in Canada as some users were even able to get an experimental version of the service to work in early 2017, but there’s still no word on the official launch.
Android Pay’s expansion in officially supported countries like Australia and the United Kingdom also slowed down in recent months, as users in those countries can still only use the service with cards issued by a rather limited number of banks. It’s currently unclear when Google is planning to speed up the international expansion of its mobile payments solution, but more details on the matter might be available shortly seeing how the annual Google I/O developer conference is just around the corner and is scheduled to start on May 17. In the meantime, Android Pay is unlikely to extend its reach to users outside of the United States, though its stateside expansion is expected to continue.