PayPal wants to be part of Apple’s mobile payments system

It really looks like Apple is getting into the mobile payments game. Last week, it was reported that Apple was working on a mobile payments system and earlier this month, Apple was awarded a patent that detailed a method for sending secure payments over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, or NFC. Also late last year, Apple began deploying iBeacons in its own retail stores, a move that many saw as a stepping stone to mobile payments in its own stores.

Apple may finally appear serious about facilitating the purchase of physical products in retail stores through its devices — and that has gotten the attention of at least one potential major competitor. Three payments industry executives tell Re/code that eBay-owned PayPal has been pitching Apple on helping the consumer electronics maker bring its long-rumored payments initiative to fruition. These people, who have spoken to contacts at both Apple and PayPal, say that PayPal is essentially willing to white-label parts of its payment service to be used in an Apple mobile payments system — anything from fraud detection to back-end infrastructure, even possibly down to the processing of payments.