The popular mobile wallet Apple Pay has launched in Honduras and Panama with support for Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by the partnering banks

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Apple Pay has expanded its functionality to the emerging markets of Panama and Honduras, with the support of local financial institutions.

The wallet will support Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards issued by BAC Credomatic and Banco Promerica in both countries as well as by Banco Ficohsa in Honduras. Banco Promerica?operates as St Georges Bank in Panama.

The move is part of the service expansion in Central America.?Earlier this month, Apple launched Apple Pay in Guatemala and El Salvador. In total, there are now more than 80 countries in the world to utilize Apple Pay.

Besides Central America, the company has recently initiated its mobile wallet service in South Korea and?enabled its SoftPOS solution Tap-to-Pay for local merchants in Australia and?Taiwan.

At present, there are 2.3 billion mobile wallet users in the world, and 507 million of them are using Apple Pay. The digital wallet also remains the most popular option in the US, where the number of Apple Pay users is forecast to hit 48.7 million?(7.3% of the overall US population) in 2023.

This year, the Apple Pay offering has enhanced its value with a BNPL capability. Currently, the Apple Pay Later service is available for US users only, operating on a limited scale and available to a limited number of consumers. However, the company intends to begin the full deployment of the service in the nearest future.

Working on a new service together with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard, Apple simultaneously created a subsidiary of Apple Financing, which will offer loans directly.