Android Pay now supports 17 more banks and credit unions in the United States, with Google expanding the compatibility list of its mobile payments service earlier this week. As is usually the case, the Alphabet-owned Internet giant didn’t draw attention to Android Pay’s newly expanded availability in any particularly high-profile manner and has instead simply updated the platform’s list of supported financial institutions. The newly supported banks include the Bank of Milton, Commercial State Bank, EagleBank, Centennial Bank, Hills Bank and Trust Company, and the Peoples Bank of East Tennessee. Other financial institutions that can now issue credit or debit cards compatible with Android Pay are the Peach State Federal Credit Union, Credit Union ONE, Stanford Federal Credit Union, American Eagle Financial Credit Union, and the Gerber Federal Credit Union. Finally, the Google-made mobile payments solution now also supports (some) cards from the State Bank Financial, Fifth District Savings Bank, mBank, Firstrust Bank, Farmers National Bank, and the Huntington National Bank, the company revealed.
Ever since debuting Android Pay in September 2015, Google has been hard at work expanding the global availability of its service, with the company placing a particularly large focus on the United States, its home country and one of the world’s largest markets for contactless payments on the planet. The Mountain View, California-based tech giant is expected to continue pursuing this product expansion strategy in the medium term, according to some industry watchers.
Android Pay is still expanding its worldwide reach to this date and has just recently debuted in Spain, boasting support for over a million stores in the European country. By the end of the year, the service is also set to be launched in Brazil, South Korea, and India, with the latter being one of Google’s potentially largest markets, with the recent demonetization of some popular banknotes prompting a significant rise in the popularity of contactless payments solutions in the South Asian country. Android Pay also made its way to Russia, Belgium, Taiwan, and Canada earlier this year, and apart from the three aforementioned markets, Google has yet to share more details regarding its future expansion plans for the service that’s seeking to position itself as a more versatile competitor to Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and similar platforms.