Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Pay, its mobile-payments service, would launch on Monday, October 20. Cook spoke at a product-launch event on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus Thursday.
Apple has signed up an additional 500 banks to support the service, which will allow Apple Pay to store payment credentials for credit and debit cards they’ve issued to their customers. Those banks join Apple’s launch partners: Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, American Express, and Capital One.
For now, Apple Pay will only work with Apple’s newest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices.
Apple Pay doesn’t actually store the 15- or 16-digit account number embossed on users’ plastic cards. Instead, it communicates with its partner banks, who give Apple a Device Account Number to store—essentially a new 16-digit number linked with the original card. Apple Pay then issues one-time-use tokens for every transaction.
Those and other security measures make Apple and its banking partners confident enough in its fraud-prevention measures that banks are paying Apple a small share of transactions.
See also: You Can’t Use Apple Pay To Buy A Latte At Starbucks
Apple has also signed up new retailers who are accepting Apple Pay, including Foot Locker and RadioShack, alongside launch partners announced in September like Macy’s, McDonald’s, and Walgreens.
Images by Apple
