Electronic trading companies have concentrated their efforts increasingly toward engaging their customers via continually evolving mobile applications and functionality recently, as the new generation of traders and future customers in key regions for the FX industry increase their move away from the desktops of old to everything being available on the move.
For retail FX firms, it is vital to be able to provide full functionality with a high level of ergonomics to customers using mobile devices, as the continual availability of a trading platform and its ancillary services, including payments, has driven user activity up exponentially at a time when maintaining a client’s interest is paramount.
This week, Britain, a region with a highly competitive and well contended retail online trading sector in which many large firms are vying for business, will be the second nation to receive Apple’s new contactless payments system which arrives on the market under the name of Apple Pay.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has stated that the new system, which has already launched in North America, could be up and running in Britain as early as this summer.
Despite having made its debut in the United States, the unveiling of Apple Pay in the UK will be a boon for FX, CFD and spread betting firms with an international audience, as US firms are restricted to onboarding domestic US residents only due to the National Futures Association (NFA) regulations, therefore this will mark the first internationally applicable roll out of the payment system for FX firms.
Investment in contactless debit and credit card payments means the necessary infrastructure for Apple Pay is already in place in the UK.
The system is designed to assist retail customers in their purchasing of products at electronic point of sale (EPOS) terminals in retail outlets, however having a designated payment system which is a native Apple application is likely to pave the way for FX firms to integrate their payment systems into the Apple system, creating a generic payment method for multiple product offerings from many firms from one Apple Pay account.
This, therefore, allows users to have just one Apple Pay system linked to their bank account or credit card, and select trading accounts with multiple brokerages, making the sales and retention process much easier.
Photograph courtesy of Reuters.