Fifteen new financial institutions, including 10 credit unions,have formally connected with Apple Pay, bringing the number ofparticipating banks and credit unions to 60 only four months afterthe initiative's unveiling.

Among those that now support the new digital payment platformare the $13 billion BECU and the $8 billion Alliant Credit Union,the $1 billion Altra FCU, the $1 billion Andrews FCU, the $4billion Ent FCU, the $1.4 billion F&A FCU, the $7 billion FirstTech FCU, the $9 billion Golden 1 Credit Union, the $295 millionINOVA FCU and the $7.2 billion Star One Credit Union.

Last month, a handful of new financial institutions announcedsupport for Apple Pay, including Security Service FCU, ConsumersCredit Union, Virginia Credit Union, Cyprus FCU, Fairwinds CreditUnion, Mountain America Credit Union, Partners FCU, and CustomersBank.

Apple Pay is a mobile payment and digital wallet service byApple Inc. that lets users make payments using the iPhone 6, iPhone6 Plus, Apple Watch-compatible devices (iPhone 5 and later models),iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. Apple Pay does not requireApple-specific contactless payment terminals and works with Visa'sPayWave, MasterCard's PayPass and American Express's ExpressPayterminals.

Apple Pay showed a lot of strength upon takeoff, accounting for1% of all digital payments in November. An ingredient of thatenergy comes from its ability to get issuing financial institutionsengaged and enabling accounts in a straightforward way.

However, Apple Pay, like all mobile payments schemes, has anignition problem. It has to get both consumers and merchants onboard, and merchant interest depends on consumer interest. And, inthe case of Apple Pay, there is another factor – access to iPhone6's. Those iPhone 6 customers need enough hardware-enabledmerchants to get them excited about dumping their plastic for ApplePay.

To complicate matters even more, reports have claimed Samsung ispreparing to launch a payments program during its Galaxy S6 launchnext month.