Dive Brief:
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Home Depot Inc. is aiming to become the largest retailer to accept Apple Pay after a revamp of its point-of-sales system (presumably to address vulnerabilities that lead to a massive breach last year) and once a deal with Apple is in place, Bloomberg reports.
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The mobile payment system was accepted in some Home Depot stores that had Near Field Communications capabilities, but that technology has been turned off during the renovation and wasn’t an official payment policy because there wasn’t an agreement with Apple, the company said.
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That interruption of Apple Pay acceptance at some stores led to inaccurate reports that it wouldn’t be accepted.
Dive Insight:
Home Depot isn’t a member of the group of retailers that have sworn off Apple Pay in favor of yet-to-be-launched CurrentC. CurrentC is the mobile payment system developed by MCX, a group of retailers that have largely agreed to eschew Apple’s popular mobile system.
Even that policy is seen as eroding as even MCX members, most recently Best Buy, have moved to take Apple Pay.
But if Home Depot does agree to fix Apple Pay into its 2,000 stores, it would be a big win for the payments system as it battles it out with others to be the standard amongst retailers.