Target Wants To Offer Apple Pay, But Focus Is On Chip And Pin

Target CEO Brian Cornell said today at the Code conference that the company is committed to offering Apple Pay as an option for customers. “I’d love to have Apple Pay in our system right now,” said Cornell, adding that he sat down with Tim Cook and explained that Target would be supporting it.

But the rollout, he said, will have to wait until Target rolls out the required chip and pin upgrades to adhere to new standards. Chip and pin (or chip and signature) machines are ubiquitous in almost every other developed nation, but the US is just getting around to sending out chipped cards and firing up terminals capable of taking the higher security cards.

“People in our space are under attack,” said Cornell, explaining that he didn’t want to distract the team rolling out their chip and pin upgrades to all of their stores by adding in additional variables like Apple Pay.

The reason that Cornell is so gunshy about security is obviously due to its incredibly high profile hacking in 2013, where an enormous amount of credit card numbers were stolen. That breach cost Target an estimated $162M in ’13 and ’14 and resulted in the hiring of Cornell, Target’s first outside CEO.

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