Nordstrom department stores are working with Apple on mobile payments (report)

Department store Nordstrom is apparently one of a group of merchant partners working with Apple on its new payments platform.

The department store has recently installed new point of sale systems that will work with the Apple payments platform, according to a report today from trade blog Bank Innovation, citing unnamed Nordstrom employees.

The sources said the mobile point of sale systems were upgraded “a few weeks ago” to make them compatible with the “most recent iPhones.”

Apple and Nordstrom had signed a contract that was not yet known to the public, one source said.

It’s true that Nordstrom has taken a technology-forward strategy in recent years. It adopted mobile points of sale using iPads back in 2012.

The report contradicts a VentureBeat source saying that Apple will rely on its credit card company partners to recruit merchants to the Apple platform.

The credit card companies — American Express, Visa, and Mastercard — might rely on the technology in the iPhone 6 (NFC) to set up a wireless link between the phone and the point of sale system, but would use their own apps to complete the transaction, our source says.

But it’s also possible that Apple is working with both credit card companies and a selected group of merchants.

The rumors are flying. We’ll have to wait until September 9 to know for sure.