Apple Pay makes its Bahrain debut with NBB, ila, and BBK banks

Paying with Apple Pay (Image credit: Pexels)

What you need to know

Apple Pay has launched in Bahrain for the first time.
Those banking with NBB, ila, and BBK are good to go.

People in Bahrain can now use Apple Pay for the first time, so long as they bank with NBB, ila, or BBK.

All three banks announced their Apple Pay support via Instagram, saying that the move will make it possible for people to take advantage of "faster, easier, and safer payments."

The Bahrain rollout was first spotted by the folks at 9to5Mac.

A photo posted by on

Customers can now add their cards to their Wallet, with both debit and credit cards supported by NBB and ila. BBK, by contrast, is only supporting debit cards at the time of writing.

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Apple Pay support will allow customers to make contactless payments via their iPhone and Apple Watch, with payments perhaps the best iPhone feature that most people forget all about.

A photo posted by on

Apple Pay first launched in the United States in 2014 with other countries coming online in 2015 and beyond. Yet more countries are adding Apple Pay support even today, with Qatari bank QNB getting in on the act this past August.

Apple Pay not only allows for contactles in-person payments, but also allows for web-based payments as well. The Apple Pay checkout process is undoubtedly one of the quickest and easiest around, making it easier and more secure for people to buy items online.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.