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Apple Inc. is joining with American Express Co. to bring its mobile wallet system to Canada and Australia in the latest test of the technology giant’s mission to expand in the global payments industry.

Starting this year, the two countries will join the U.S. and U.K. in getting Apple Pay, which lets iPhone users make purchases by tapping their phones on merchant terminals, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said during a conference call Tuesday. Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong will follow in 2016, he said.

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Compared with the U.S., Canada has a higher proportion of payment terminals equipped with the contactless technology used by Apple Pay. Currently, mobile-wallet transactions are limited to Android and BlackBerry devices, leaving out the 40 per cent of Canadians who have an iPhone, according to ComScore Inc.

Apple Pay will have a “meaningful role, but hardly a transformational one in Canada,” Rob Sedran, a CIBC World Markets bank analyst, wrote in an Oct. 21 note. Average credit-card fees made up 2.9 per cent of revenue in the last four quarters for Canada’s six-biggest banks, Sedran said. Assuming Apple captures 10 basis points per transaction, of roughly 150 basis points, and a 30 per cent share of card transactions, the earnings impact would be immaterial for the sector in the near to medium term, he said.