Apple solves decades-old problem as TD Ameritrade taps Apple Pay for instant fund transfers to accounts

“Brokerage firm TD Ameritrade Holding Corp is tapping Apple Inc to help solve a problem that has lingered for decades: how to get money into a brokerage account and make it available to trade with on the same day,” Stephen Nellis reports for Reuters. “The Omaha, Nebraska-based financial firm said on Tuesday it was allowing customers to fund their accounts with a debit card in their Apple Pay digital wallets. Using the wallet and a system called Apple Business Chat, TD Ameritrade customers with Apple devices can transfer up to $10,000 a day to their accounts and have access to it immediately, a feature the brokerage says is a first in its industry.”
“Previously, customers had to either use a wire transfer, which can be complex, or wait for several days before being able to access transferred funds. Sunayna Tuteja, head of strategic partnerships and emerging technologies at TD Ameritrade, said the wait was one of the top-five drivers of customer service calls,” Nellis reports. “‘When a customer wants to put money into a TD Ameritrade account, we gave them the same choices they had in the 1970s and 1980s,’ she said. ‘We knew it was a persistent client irritant.'”
Nellis reports, “Tuteja said TD Ameritrade chose Apple Pay to start with because of its ease of use, security and the fact that about three-quarters of the brokerage’s clients use the iOS operating system.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This makes ACH look positively prehistoric. Now, we just need more brokers to deploy Apple Pay capability, too!
For more information, interested businesses should watch Apple’s “Getting Ready for Business Chat” (WWDC 2018) here.
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