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20 N.C. Banking Inst. 311 (2016)
Less Is NOT More: The Need to Regulate Apple Pay

handle is hein.journals/ncbj20 and id is 325 raw text is: Less is NOT More: The Need to Regulate Apple Pay I. INTRODUCTION Twenty-five percent of American adults own an iPhone.1 All model 6 and newer iPhones are Apple Pay-enabled and in a matter of a few years, all the non-Apple Pay-enabled iPhones will likely be replaced.2 Now, combine Apple's broad reach with the recent development that social security and veteran beneficiaries may upload their federal benefit debit cards to Apple Pay.3 This is possible because Apple Pay is permitted as a platform for federal payment cards that are used to disburse social security and veterans' benefits.* In addition, Apple Pay now supports financial transactions with the federal government, on the receiving end, such as admission to national parks.5 This means that the federal government is now both a card issuing institution and a merchant that has a formal agreement with Apple Pay.6 By adopting Apple Pay as a mobile payment platform, the government is subjecting itself, and the taxpayers, to the risk that criminals will exploit the vulnerability of the Apple Pay system, just as it does with the current debit card system.7 The difference is that, under the current regulatory 1. Philip Elmer-DeWitt, NPD: Better Than 1 in 4 Adult Americans Now Own an iPhone, TIME INC. NETWORK: FORTUNE (Jan. 16, 2014, 8:33 PM), http://fortune.com/2014/01/16/npd-better-than-l -in-4-adult-americans-now-own-an-iphone/. 2. See Farhad Manjoo, A WildIdea; Making Our Smartphones Last Longer, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 12, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/technology/personaltech/the-radical- concept-of-longevity-in-a-smartphone.html?_r=0 (detailing how the average user only keeps an intemet-enabled mobile phone for two years before purchasing a newer model and therefore most people will have all the technological advancements that come along with those newer models). 3. Tim Higgins & Elizabeth Dexheimer, Obama's Visit to Silicon Valley is a Big Win for Apple Pay, BLOOMBERG Bus. (Feb. 13, 2015, 2:36 PM), http://www.bloomberg.con/news/articles/2015-02-13/obama-s-visit-to-silicon-valley-is-a- big-win-for-apple-pay (explaining how the federal government has publicly endorsed the payment platform, Apple Pay, for use in limited federal transactions). 4. Id. 5. Id. 6. See id. (explaining Apple Pay and how the federal government is now allowing their customers to utilize Apple Pay). 7. Sophia Yan, Thieves Use Stolen Credit Cards on Apple Pay - Report, CNN MONEY (Mar. 5, 2015, 10:11 PM), http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/05/technology/apple-pay-