> They claim first tap to pay will happen later this year.
Big if true. I guess the main problem is, would the banks from all over the world join in?
Fidesmo (https://fidesmo.com/consumer/fidesmo-pay/) has managed to sidestep this by integrating with Curve (https://www.curve.com/), which issues their own card and then charges your bank’s card from their end when you pay with theirs (tokenized and emulated by Fidesmo).
(Fidesmo also integrates with a whole bunch of banks directly, though mainly EU.)
Unfortunately NFC payments via bank app is not a thing in the US to my knowledge, and I've not heard of any plans to start doing it, but good for Europe.
Some European banks including mine offer NFC payments via their app as well. You don't need Google services.