Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
has quietly pulled its SIM-based NFC mobile payments app from the Google Play Store, citing the popularity of alternatives from Samsung and Apple.
In a Canadian first, CIBC partnered telco Rogers to launch its NFC payments service for Blackberry handsets back in 2012, expanding to Android devices the following year.
However, it is now ceding the field to the tech giants. Last May it introduced support for Apple Pay and has also become, so far, the only one of Canada's big five banks to back Samsung Pay.
A spokesman told Mobile Syrup that the new options have "generated a strong, positive client response". This has led to the bank killing off its own app to "shift our focus on growing mobile payments in other areas".