Following the government's cashless policy push, online card payments have quickly become routine in Italy, and the habit of registering cards to an iPhone has carried over into online payments as well. Apple Pay transmits a token instead of the actual card number and confirms the transaction through Face ID or Touch ID biometric authentication, which satisfies the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirement under PSD2 without an extra verification screen — a direct benefit to e-commerce conversion rates.

For merchants in Korea with a high share of mobile web and app traffic (fashion, ticketing, subscription services, and the like), a single Apple Pay button can reduce the drop-off that typically occurs during card number entry and authentication redirects. Since a substantial share of debit and prepaid cards issued in Italy support wallet registration, coverage gaps remain limited even in a market that is not purely credit-card driven.

When a shopper selects Apple Pay at checkout and approves the payment with biometric authentication, the token stored on the device is transmitted, completing the authorization without exposing the actual card details. Because this process itself satisfies the SCA requirement, a separate 3DS screen is often skipped. Hecto Financial receives the approved payment in euros (EUR), converts it, and settles it with the merchant in Korea in USD, KRW, or JPY, whichever currency was selected in the contract.

Integrating through Hecto Financial lets a Korean corporation consider accepting Apple Pay from Italian customers while minimizing separate procedures with Apple. Technical requirements such as web domain verification, along with actual support conditions, should be confirmed with the sales team before signing a contract.

• Business registration country

  Confirm contract eligibility for businesses registered in Korea

• Sales channels

  The integration method and priority vary depending on the online sales channel mix — owned storefront, marketplace, mobile app, and so on

• Product categories

  Check in advance whether your products fall under a category restricted by Apple Pay's merchant policy

• EU regulatory compliance

  Confirm compliance with EU payment regulations such as PSD2 and SEPA (see official sources below)

Settlement for Apple Pay transactions follows the same path as the underlying card payment. Hecto Financial receives amounts generated in euros (EUR) locally, converts them, and pays the merchant in Korea in whichever of USD, KRW, or JPY was designated in the contract (the cycle follows the contract terms). Refunds are processed as cancellations against the original card and apply equally to the tokenized card, and the chargeback process also follows card network rules, so the same documentation practices used for standard card payments apply.

• Bank of Italy (Banca d'Italia)Official information on Italy's payment system and related regulations. If the content of this page differs from the actual regulations, the official source takes precedence.