Apple in talks to let you send money to friends with an iPhone

                                        

Apple is reportedly in discussions with banks over introducing a peer-to-peer payment service that would let iPhone owners send cash to each other.

The company has been talking to a number of American financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase, Capital One and Wells Fargo, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apple already offers its iPhone and Apple Watch contactless payment service, Apple Pay, in the US and UK with other countries set to follow. A service that lets users send money back and forth, directly from their bank accounts, could be seen as a natural extension of that.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, met George Osborne on a visit to the UK this week, the Chancellor revealed on Wednesday, saying the two talked extensively about Apple Pay. "I was thinking how extraordinary it was that you had a finance minister and the head of a tech company talking about the future of banking," Osborne said, adding that he wants "the UK to be the global centre of fintech" at a Bank of England event.

Cook said on Wednesday that the next generation of children "will not know what money is", in a further indication that the iPhone maker is becoming more interested in payments.

A service that lets users pay each other via iPhone could be used by friends to pay each other money or split bills, and by independent contractors, turning an iPhone into a portable till.

It would also challenge a range of third-party payment services, includingBarclays' Pingit app, PayPal's Venmo, and Paym, the UK banking system's mobile payments service that lets users send money with just a phone number.

It is unclear how advanced Apple's plans are, although the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple would not charge for the service, and that it may use an existing US service called clearXchange.

Apple's discussions with banks about making further steps into financial services could face some difficulty, given that banks may run competing services. Apple Pay, for example, is only in two countries over a year after its introduction, although it will be launched in more territories soon.