Apple in talks with US banks for PayPal-type digital payments

Apple is reportedly in discussion with a number of US banks to develop a digital payments system that would allow people to pay via their phones, similar to services offered by PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo, re/code reported citing multiple people familiar with the talks.

It is however, not known for certain whether Apple would work with credit card networks on the new service as it did for its existing Apple Pay service, or bypass them in the process.

While an Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, according to a PayPal spokesman, ''welcome[s] any development that encourages people to address the awkwardness of dealing with cash when paying friends or family back. We have multiple services to make that easy, including both PayPal and Venmo. Our services work across multiple devices and operating systems, as well as online.''

According to The Wall Street Journal , which first  reported the talks, Chase, Capital One, Wells Fargo and had all been named as potential partners.

According to the WSJ's source, unlike Apple Pay -- wherein banks had to pay a fee for each transaction -- this peer-to-peer scheme would not cost anything to the financial institutions.

According to the WSJ, Apple's service could roll out as early as 2016.