Lloyds Makes It Official: U.K. Customers Now Have Apple Pay

Lloyds Banking Group has joined the list of U.K. banking companies that support Apple Pay.

Eleven U.K. banks now support Apple Pay, including Natwest, Nationwide, American Express and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The only major financial institution still not in Apple Pay's corner is Barclays, which has long nurtured its own mobile payment ecosystem.

Lloyds revealed three months ago, or about a month before Apple Pay's official launch in the country, that it intended to make the mobile payment system available to its customers at Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland this fall.

"We are delighted to be able to offer Apple Pay to our millions of customers," Stephen Noakes, managing director of Lloyds banking group's retail customer products, stated in a press release.

"The way consumers fulfill their banking needs is changing, as our customers want to bank and transact on the go," Noakes added. "Offering Apple Pay utilizes the latest technology to this ever-increasing demand."

In early July, Barclays confirmed to PaymentsSource its intent to link its credit and debit cards to Apple Pay "in the near future," but did not supply any other details.

Barclays' latest development is a jacket that will hold the issuer's contactless bpay technology in its sleeve for tap-and-go payments. Barclays has previously made it possible to send or receive payments from gloves, stickers and even a donkey's saddle.