British banking group Barclays is merging two of its payment apps- BPay and Pingit- in a bid to compete with major payment players such as Apple, reported Bloomberg.
BPay is the bank’s wearable mobile payments service, while Pingit is its money transfer app.
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According to the report, the popularity level of the two offerings has shown considerable difference.
Stating to Bloomberg, Barclays spokeswoman said that BPay currently has users in the “high tens of thousands.”
On the other hand, Pingit’s user base stands at 3.6 million, the spokeswoman said.
To strengthen its position in the wearables space, Barclays teamed up with watch brands including Guess and Timex.
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By GlobalDataHowever, consumer adoption of BPay is said to have remained feeble despite the fact that the product’s launch in 2014 precedes the launch of Apple Pay in the UK.
This is said to have triggered the merger of the two apps.
BPay users will now be transferred to the Pingit app. These include users with partner products having an embedded BPay chip.
Meanwhile, Apple has delved deep into consumer finance through a tie-up with American investment bank Goldman Sachs last month.
The pair will launch a credit card, which can be paired with iPhones and will use Mastercard’s network.
Recent payment initatives by Barclays:
Last month, Barclays acquired a minority stake in payment-linked loyalty platform Bink.
In the same month, Barclaycard Commercial Payments, a unit of Barclays Bank, collaborated with SAP UK for B2B payments.
