Volksbank and Raiffeisenbank have announced enabling access to Apple Pay for holders of VR credit cards for business accounts. Cooperative banks, known in Germany as Genossenschaftsbanken or Genobanken, are credit institutions that are managed in the legal form of a cooperative corporation and belong to a cooperative banking group.

The Genobanks Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken have now activated Apple Pay for credit cards that are linked to a business account. This feature was previously only accessible to private customers since April 2020. According to a DZ Bank representative, cited by IT Finanzmagazin, the activation of business cards for mobile payment (Apple Pay iOS and PayApp Android) took place on 5 July 2022.

The DZ Bank, known as Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank is the central institution within the cooperative financial sector and is responsible for all German credit cooperatives. Why it took so long DZ Bank explains why it took so long with cost-benefit considerations. The considerations of portfolio size, additional income from ‘new’ use cases and the necessary development effort would have played a not insignificant role.

At the same time, the spokesman points out that the use of Apple Pay for business cards on the part of Apple is not mandatory and therefore not (yet) a market standard. Aim of the development The focus of the cooperative financial group is on the further development of mobile payment offers in the private customer business. Various procedural developments have been made here since 2022.

The DZ Bank representative continues to state that the existing business card portfolio was activated in 2022, thus completing the range of products on the market. Digital credit card statements Another improvement for business customers is also in the works. Previously, customers have always received their credit card statements on paper.

However, starting in August 2022, users should now also have the option of receiving a PDF via their bank’s e-mail inbox instead.   New Scan2Bank function Additionally, the Volksbank mobile banking app’s ‘Scan2Bank’ function is also meant to receive a further increase in functionality in one of the upcoming version changes. This update should allow users to create transfers by simply photographing the invoice.

Data such as recipient name and account, payment amount, and invoice number should be recognised automatically by this photograph and inserted into the appropriate fields. .