Target promises Apple Pay support after payment terminal overhaul

Target, one of the US's largest retail outlets, has been one of the odd outliers when it comes to merchants who jumped at supporting Apple Pay. While a change won't be happening overnight, the company has promised that Apple Pay will be accepted in the future, once stores finish an update to their point of sale terminals. Target's CEO Brian Cornell made the statement this week, adding that he'd "love to have Apple Pay today," but that they needed to be up to date with current security standards.

Target is in the midst of updating its checkout registers to accept chip-and-PIN cards, otherwise known as integrated circuit cards, which use an embedded microchip instead of the magnetic stripe found on credit and debit cards. These kind of cards have long been used in other countries, and now US retailers are being encouraged to accept them before the end of 2015, as they are much more secure.

Cornell mentioned that he'd already told Apple CEO Tim Cook of Target's plans. He added that the company eventually wants to "accept all the types of payments that our guests want." Target already accepts Apple Pay within their own iOS app, but they want to focus on "getting chip-and-PIN in place in time for the holidays."

Another likely reason for Target's renewed focus on security standards is to recover from the 2013 data breach that damaged their reputation. In December of that year, hackers managed to steal the credit card data of roughly 40 million Target customers. With point-of-sale systems that accept chip-and-PIN cards, they aim to offer better digital security when it comes to transactions.

SOURCE Re/code