Apple announced Connected Cards with the arrival of iOS 17, and now the United Kingdom is the first country where the feature is officially available after several weeks of beta testing.
The service essentially brings regular bank accounts into the Apple Wallet through the country’s Open Banking API. The initial trial included Barclays, Lloyds, and HSBC, and it shows transactions, current balance and other basic info.
Connected Cards allows users to nominate one or more cards that are associated with specific accounts in British banks. A similar system is expected to come to the United States, but the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is still working on an equivalent to Open Banking API.
According to the Apple website, there are mentions of the service in America within the Terms and Conditions for the United Kingdom, meaning Apple is ready; it’s the regulator that has to step forward to allow the service.
