Apple To Include Mobile Payments In Next iPhone: Reports

Apple is partnering with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to help make the next iPhone into an electronic wallet, Bloomberg reported Sunday. With the new feature, iPhone owners would be able to use their phone to pay for goods at participating retail stores.

Apple has long been rumored to covet the mobile-payment arena, and the report is the latest indication that the company is finally making its move. This week, Wired reported that Apple's next iPhone would come equipped with a mobile-payment technology called Near Field Communication.

The technology website The Information reported last month that Visa had signed on with Apple as a partner, and Re/Code reported on Sunday that American Express was on board as well. Re/code also reported that the iPhone's fingerprint scanner will "at some point play a role in the system — either at launch or sometime in the future."

Google, Amazon, Facebook, Paypal are at various stages of integrating mobile payments into their businesses. But thus far, the technology has failed to take off in the United States.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 6 and other new gadgets at an event on September 9.