Both PSCU and MasterCard had worked hard to get Consumers live in Apple Pay, he added.

At Fairwinds, EVP Mathy Hogan said the credit union attributed its early entry into Apple Pay to a close relationship with First Data, its Atlanta-based card processor.

Although Fairwinds is live in Apple Pay, it has not announced this to members yet, she noted.

“We want to be sure there are no issues. We will announce it next week,” Hogan said.

Glenn Birch, media relations director at Virginia Credit Union, attributed the cooperative's early adopter status to a range of factors.

“We had great partners in PSCU and MasterCard, and we did our part to make sure that we were ready,” he said.

At Mountain America, SVP Tony Rasmussen said the credit union worked directly with Visa, which provided what he called the project management.

In Utah, where the population skews young and where interest in technology is high, Mountain America expects usage of Apple Pay to pick up, he added.

As for why three Utah credit unions – Mountain America, Cyprus, and, in an earlier round, the $6.3 billion America First Credit Union in Riverdale, Utah – have already made it into Apple Pay, Rasmussen said he had no certain knowledge.

However, he pointed out that Salt Lake City had been selected by mobile wallet service firm Isis, which is now known as Softcard, as one of two test markets in the U.S. The other test market was in Austin, Texas, and that may have helped build out a near field communication-ready infrastructure. Apple Pay is also NFC-based.

While Cyprus Credit Union had not responded to CU Times' request for comment by press time, on its website, the institution said, “You can to use your Cyprus credit cards with Apple Pay; the easy, secure, and private way to pay.”

Apple also included Cyprus on its official list. Partners, which is also on that list, did not return a call from CU Times by press time.

The newly-enrolled credit unions joined the $1.7 billion Idaho Central Credit Union in Chubbuck, Idaho, the $1.2 billion Dupaco Community Credit Union in Dubuque, Iowa, the $1 billion Black Hills Federal Credit Union in Rapid City, S.D., and the $8 billion Security Service Federal Credit Union in San Antonio. All went live in mid-December.

Other credit unions that went live earlier in Apple Pay included the $62 billion Navy Federal Credit Union in Vienna, Va., the $1.8 billion UW Credit Union in Madison, Wis., the $891 million L&N Federal Credit Union in Louisville, Ky., and the $548 million National Institutes of Health Credit Union in Rockville, Md.

Less than two dozen banks are now live in Apple Pay. Among them are Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and Wells Fargo.

The latest round of activations saw six credit unions enrolled and just one bank, Customers Bank in Wyomissing, Pa.

Some experts have said there is a backlog of several hundred credit unions waiting to go live in Apple Pay. There is no known activation date, although multiple sources said indications are that most institutions in the Apple queue will, barring unforeseen difficulties, be active by the end of 2015.