Google’s Android Pay launches in Canada with most major banks as partners

TORONTO – Google’s Android Pay, a mobile wallet that allows people to pay with their smartphone, is available for Canadians to download starting Wednesday.

Users can pay with the app in stores that accept contactless payment and on apps such as Uber and Lululemon that have an Android Pay button.

Android Pay will work with Visa and MasterCard credit cards from Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Scotiabank, National Bank, Desjardins, President’s Choice Financial, ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial Services.

On Monday, Google will start to roll out support for Interac cards from those banks.

Missing from the list of partners are TD Bank and Royal Bank, which both offer in-house digital wallets that are compatible with some Android devices.

Pali Bhat, vice-president of Google payments, said the company expects to add more banks to the pay system.

Android Pay comes to Canada more than a year after Apple Pay became available in the country.

The Android app, which is already in use in 11 other countries, will work on all NFC-enabled Android devices running on the operating system KitKat 4.4 or higher.