Re/code reports that Apple is continuing to move forward on their mobile payments push, as the company has been interviewing senior payments industry executives to aid the company in its plan to build an electronic payments business.
The company has been interviewing potential applicants for two new positions at Apple that will focus exclusively on building a payment business around the hundreds of millions of credit cards it already has on file. Re/code’s sources say Apple is looking for someone to fill two positions, head of product and head of business development.
The sources say, “Their ambitions are very, very serious,” and say that Apple’s long-time head of e-commerce, Jennifer Bailey, is leading the initiative and is meeting with candidates.
Apple has said that there are nearly 600 million iTunes accounts that customers have setup. The majority of those accounts have a credit card tied to them.
The company is said to be exploring ways to use those iTunes accounts as a foundation for a system to allow shoppers to pay for physical products and services via their iPhones.
Apple CEO Tim Cook noted on the company’s last earnings call that Apple sees an opportunity to facilitate payments via its hardware and software, but did not go into specifics. Merely noting, “The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with, and that was one of the thoughts behind the Touch ID. But we’re not limiting ourselves just to that.”
