boon, Wirecard’s iOS mobile payment solution, has launched in France. Following its launch in the UK in May 2016, France has finally become the first market in the Euro area to enable people to use boon with Apple Pay – as was said to be coming back in July 2016.

Georg von Waldenfels, executive VP of consumer solutions at Wirecard, said: “By launching boon with Apple Pay in France, even more users in Europe can experience a new level of mobile payments without being a customer of a specific bank.”

boon communicates by near field communication (NFC) with point-of-sale terminals at retail outlets, where the MasterCard contactless logo appears. It based on an automatic app-to-wallet integration via a prepaid account with a digital MasterCard. To pay using boon, the user positions their smartphone one cm above the display of the payment terminal.

The boon app is available on the App Store for iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone SE with iOS 9 (or higher). Wirecard says users will still continue to receive all of the rewards and benefits offered by credit and debit cards.