Following Tuesday's announcement by Apple of Apple Pay, an NFC-based mobile payment service, credit unionsasked, what about us?

Is there a place for credit unions in Apple Pay?

“We have been getting a lot of inquiries from credit unions.They all want to know if they can participate,” said BrandonBogler, an executive with The Members Group in Des Moines,Iowa.

The one credit union that did not ask that question was Vienna,Va.-based Navy Federal, because the $60 billion cooperative was oneof a handful of financial institutions already lined up toparticipate in Apple Pay. Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, USAAand a few other mega banks are also in the opening lineup..

Don't think this means everybody else is left out.

“There definitely will be a place for credit unions in ApplePay. There's a place for all credit card issuers,” said Brandon Kuehl, another TMG executive.

David Cramer, head of financial institution sales in NorthAmerica for Visa, backed that up.

“We are building the pipes to allow any and all FIs that want toparticipate to be able to do so, without having to do a lot ofcustom development,” he said.

Exactly how broad Apple Pay's impact will be is an openquestion. The largest unknown is how merchants willreact.

Some, such as MCX leader WalMart, already has gone on record saying thatApple Pay will not be accepted at its stores. But many others –CVS, Walgreens, Whole Foods, McDonalds, Panera Bread – quicklyclimbed aboard.

Understand this: Playing inside Apple Pay involves new fees fora participating institution. The biggest new fee is Apple's thinslice of interchange, for its role in facilitating the transaction.Apple has not publicly revealed its percentage, but industryexperts peg it as around 15 basis points. TMG's Kuehl, who declinedto comment on the specifics of Apple's cut, said, “It's a smallnumber.”

Kuehl, who indicated he did not think the Apple interchange bitewill dissuade institutions from participating, added, “there is nota large startup cost involved with Apple Pay.”

Also, Apple Pay payments will be processed as “card present”interchange fees, even though the merchant will not see the plasticcard and will not know the account number. Instead, the merchantwill be presented with a digital token, created by Visa,Mastercard, or American Express, that strips out accountdetails.

“Being able to tokenize a transaction removes the valuabledata,” Cramer said.

At CO-OP Financial Services in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., CEOStan Hollen said that he welcomed Apple Pay, in part because“it preserves interchange for financial institutions.”

He indicated that some wallets – he pointed to MCX – aredetermined to significantly lower interchange, but that is not thecase with Apple Pay.

Hollen added that he thought it fine if Apple took a piece ofinterchange, in part because its technology is creating a verysecure transaction that will have dramatically reduced fraud.

“It's Apple, their role in this will bring a lot of people andretailers into mobile payments,” he said.

Hollen cautioned that “there remain a lot of moving parts withApple Pay;” that is, some elements are not yet fully revealed.

“There are things we don't yet know,” he said.

As for the biggest question, how will new institutions getinvolved with Apple Pay? The short answer is that the details havenot been disclosed.

CO-OP's executive vice president Caroline Willard said that there are many, many webinars nowstreaming for interested financial institutions. CO-OP itself willoffer one next week, Willard said, who indicated that details willbe announced imminently.

Bottomline: The news for credit unions that want to get involvedin Apple Pay appears to be all positive.

“Credit unions that weren't in the initial group of institutionsannounced by Apple won't be disadvantaged,” Hollen predicted.“There will be plenty of time for all to get involved.”