The vast majority of Apple Pay partners are credit unions, according to Visa's official list of financial institutions.
"Currently, Visa is working with approximately 500 U.S. financial institutions, all of which have executed an agreement to deploy the new Apple Pay service. Approximately 360 of those financial institutions are credit unions," a Visa spokesperson told CU Times.
"We are in the process of testing and certifying issuer processors and their platforms which support more than a thousand credit unions so we anticipate an ever increasing number of [credit unions] to deploy the service in the not too distant future," the spokesperson added.
As of Monday, Visa's posted list of partners consisted of 317 credit unions and 120 banks.
"Visa is working with hundreds of financial institutions to enable Apple Pay for Visa credit and debit cardholders in the coming months," the list read.
NCUA Board Member Rick Metsger told CU Times Visa's Apple Pay partner list shows that a financial institution does not have to be large to employ new technologies, which can reduce the probability of a consumer to become the victim of fraud.
"Neither I nor the NCUA endorse specific technologies or vendors, but we encourage all credit unions to investigate their options and to deploy whatever solution provides the maximum security for personally identifiable information and best meets the needs of their credit union and its members," Metsger said.
Apple Pay is Apple's new mobile payment system, which is available on the new iPhone 6 and 6 plus as well as the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.
According to Apple, owners of the previous model iPhones, including iPhone 5, 5c or 5s, have to purchase an Apple Watch to utilize the technology, since it requires a device with a build-in NFC chip.
Consumers can use Apple Pay at 220,000 stores, including McDonalds, Whole Foods and Panera Bread, Apple said.
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