Italy has become the 16th country in which Apple Pay is in operation. The development follows speculation from March, when an Apple Pay section appeared on Apple’s Italian website.

The mobile payments platform arrives in the country with the support of Mastercard, Carrefour Bank, Unicredit, and the Boon prepaid Mastercard app. Further support from organizations including American Express, CartaBCC, Fineco Bank, Banca Mediolanum, and more, is in the pipeline. As for retailers, a number of companies including LaGardenia, Limoni, and La Raniscente have announced their official support, though of course Apple Pay can be used wherever NFC transactions are supported.

Apple Pay’s arrival in Italy comes soon after a Q1 update in which Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Pay transactions had increased 450 percent compared to a year ago. While Apple still hasn’t disclosed actual numbers with respect to use of Apple Pay, a recent market research report suggested that the platform has a substantial lead over competitors like Samsung Pay and Android Pay, and will see considerable growth over the next few years.