MasterCard said it is the first credit card network to offer tokenisation to store-branded credit cards that appear in digital wallets, including the just announced Apple Wallet.

BJ’s, Kohl’s and JCPenney will be among the first retailers to bring mobile payments to their cardholders later this year, it said.

The same three retailers were mentioned by Apple last week when it unveiled the Apple Wallet update for iOS 9. One of the features of Apple Wallet is support for store-branded credit cards, which are a significant factor in the payment market.

MasterCard also announced partnerships with some leading private label credit card issuers in the US, including Synchrony Financial and Citi Retail Services.

Tokenisation for store-branded credit cards, also known as private label cards, happens through the MasterCard Digital Enablement Servces (MDES), which already supports credit, debit, co-brand, prepaid and small business cards.

In addition, MDES supports point-of-sale payments and in-app purchases. In a separate announcement, the credit card network said it is expanding MDES to include app, ecommerce and recurring billing card-on-file programmes, such as streaming music and video services, club dues and utility bills.

Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard, said. “We are very excited to announce the extension of our industry-leading MDES program to make all of these merchant shopping environments more secure and convenient for their customers using MasterCard tokens, seamlessly enhancing the systems merchants and acquirers already have in place, and eliminating a significant ‘hassle factor’ for consumers when card numbers change.”