Apple Pay will launch in the UK on Thursday, according to media leaks.The purported arrival of the biometric, contactless payment solution was accidently announced in a Tweet by HSBC bank over last weekend, and a previous leak by a supermarket.Major UK brands including Boots, Waitrose and the Post Office have already signed up, with the same spending limit of Ă‚ÂŁ20 in place for single contactless transactions.Meanwhile, British banks such as First Direct, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank are on-board.The initial limit will be Ă‚ÂŁ20 (US$31), but this limit will be raised to Ă‚ÂŁ30 in autumn 2015 for all UK retailers.In June, Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday that it will launch the biometric payment system in the UK this July.MasterCard has noted that it is working with several banks, including: HSBC; MBNA; RBS/Natwest and Santander, to enable users of an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or Apple Watch to use their MasterCard credit, debit or prepaid cards directly through Apple Pay. “Apple Pay, combined with MasterCard's digital payments technology, gives consumers a simple, convenient and secure way to shop,” said Mark Barnett, President of MasterCard UK & Ireland.

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