“Apple Inc is struggling to persuade Australia’s big banks to sign up for its Apple Pay mobile payment system, people familiar with the matter say, as the technology giant works from an unfamiliar negotiating position: weakness, not strength,” Matt Siegel reports for Reuters.
“Apple rolled out the service in Australia last month with support for payment cards issued directly by American Express Co. The move is part of the iPhone supplier’s global drive to extend its mobile consumer electronics prowess into financial services, with a China launch expected soon,” Siegel reports. “But the firm has yet to strike a deal with any of the four main banks – ANZ, National Australia Bank (NAB), Commonwealth Bank and Westpac. That sets it adrift from 80 percent of consumers using mobile payments systems linked to other credit cards in a market Westpac sees as being worth more than $2 billion this year.”
“Like the people familiar with negotiations between Apple and the lenders, sector watchers say the banks feel little sense of urgency to conclude a deal,” Siegel reports. “[The situation] has angered opposition Labor Party lawmaker Ed Husic, who last month wrote a letter to the RBA accusing the lenders of engaging in anti-competitive behavior at consumers’ expense. ‘The bottom line is we’ve got an arm wrestle going on here and the longer it goes on, the longer the customers have to stand by at the edges… waiting for some sort of resolution,’ Husic told Reuters. For Husic, the longer the stalemate drags on, the more likely a potential investigation of the banks for anti-competitive behavior becomes. ‘If it drags on, I think the drum beat for that type of action will grow,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, this will get sorted out sooner than later as banks and retailers realize that people want to use Apple Pay, so it is in their best interested to work with Apple instead of collude to blockade it.
SEE ALSO:
Aussie consumers lose as banks effectively boycott Apple Pay – November 27, 2015
Same thing happening here in Canada. I have my Amex card enabled, but have yet to use it. Looking forward to trying it out.
I wrote to the Royal Bank of Canada and complained. I told them that the first bank that accepted Apple Pay would get all my business and that I would encourage all my colleagues, friends and family to switch as well.
The first bank that blinks will win.
Luddites.
If they won’t let ApplePay work, they must have a better choice or they are just dinosaurs.
See my comment below Bo, we have a much more advanced and competitive payments system down here than existed in the USA prior to Apple Pay.
Sounds like they think their system is better.
If it is them I would use that.
No, they aren’t better. They are simply apps that require more steps and more effort (see: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/apple-pay-launches-in-australia-without-national-banks-20151118-gl267c.html).
The Australian Banks are acting as a cartel to stop Apple from getting a foothold.
Dinosaurs
Yeah, they have a better choice. The banks run the payments network and charges are very low compared to the USA. Austrslia deployed chip and pin cards some years ago, so fraud is less of an issue. Apple wants to use the payments system owned and operated by the banks. AND they want the banks to pay them to use it. Unsurprisingly, the banks are unenthusiastic – what’s in it for them?
I loaded Amex on my phone a few days ago. I keep forgetting to use it. Actually, a credit card is probably easier to use…
Same situation in Canada. None of our banks are signing on with Apple Pay. We can get an American Express with Apple Pay, but Amex is not as widely accepted….
Canadian banks are pushing their “tap it” in which you just tap your credit card to the machine…. no signature, no pin code, lots of chance for fraud. There went the security value of our ‘pin&chip’ cards.
Not true. “Tap” uses the same technology as ApplePay. That’s why Americans visiting Canada can simply use ApplePay at MOST places in Canada.
Tap is limited to $100 transactions, and since there’s no liability if someone uses your card there is little security risk. If you’re using ‘Interac’ which is the system used by ALL banks in Canada, you’re not as safe, not protected in case of a failure,
And although AMEX is accepted at fewer places, it’s still widely accepted. ApplePay also doesn’t come with the $100 limit that PayPass ( PayPass ) and PayWave ( Visa ) use.
Finally, since Amex’s tap system ( and their chip n’ pin system ) is even LESS common than being able to USE AMEX, Amex REALLY benefits from ApplePay.
Don’t confuse the terminal technology with card security. Same terminal, but Tap is insecure requiring NO validation. Very, very occasionally you might be required to enter your PIN, but that is rare. It is because of the INSECURITY that Tap transaction amounts are limited.
If you loose your card ANYBODY can tap to pay. If you loose your iPhone, NOBODY can use your phone to pay… unless they take your thumb at the same time.
I agree. Anyone can use your card if you tap, but the transactions are limited to $100 and there is 0 liability for tap transactions. You simply report the card stolen and they reverse the charges. It’s inconvenient, though. Tap & Chip n’ PIN protects the CC issuer, NOT the consumer, for whom it matters little.
There’s more investigation if they have your PIN or you swiped it of course. Ironically, you have LESS liability protection with a PIN. If it is compromised you’re more likely to be questioned and the investigation will include investigating the card holder as well.
You generally only need your PIN the first time you use the card.
You are correct that ApplePay is more secure, but with credit cards, it’s less of an issue to be honest.
Mark – please don’t be infected by this Americanism. LOOSE is what you pants become if you diet. If you misplace your phone, you LOSE it. (Where the heck did this come from and why?)
“LOOSE is what you pants become if you diet.”
I wonder if you actually meant ‘your’ rather than ‘you’ when you picked on that poor misguided soul.
@ Sean
Sometimes I loose my pants (usually after a big meal), sometime I lose my pants (rather embarrassing when this happens at work).
You don’t ‘loose’ your pants after a big meal, you drongo (Australian slang for %$##$#!!!), you ‘loosen’ your pants after a big meal. Sheesh!
Dude, “you” is a typo, “Loose” is NOT a typo.
Jesus!!
“Tap” uses the same technology as ApplePay,
No, it doesn’t. ApplePay requires fingerprint authentication, and it discloses no information to the vendor other than the amount paid.
-jcr
That’s the authentication method. The phone doesn’t send the signal until the fingerprint sensor is validated…. but the signal itself is just RFID and just like PayWave and PayPass. Why do you think they are able to roll this out so quickly?
Why did a bunch of retailers in the USA turn OFF the ability to tap when they found out that they inadvertently supported ApplePay as well?
I’m kind of on the fence about this one. As much I would love to use Apple Pay here, our payments systems are already far ahead of the USA so there is less urgency to get it done.
All credit and debit cards are PIN and chip and have been for years and tap to pay is available at probably 75-80% of all outlets and will only increase as old equipment is replaced.
Also, our interchange rates are around 1/2 that exists between the financial institutions in the USA so Apple are going to need to slash their expected fees to offer a benefit to the banks here.
They had to do so in the UK as a similar situation existed there, so there’s no reason to think that a compromise can’t be reached in a country that is in the G20 and has always had a heavily over-represented Apple market share and contribution to global sales compared to its population.
Not sure about these days now that China has kicked in but a few years back Australia and NZ accounted for about 5% of Apple global sales despite a combined population of less than 30 million people.
“Tap to Pay” may be convenient, but it is NOT secure. You loose your card and the finder can go on a shopping spree.
Apple pay is both convenient AND secure.
True. Also if you debit card is lost or stolen when you’re out of the country, it’s severely bad news if you report it gone. The bank immediately cuts off your ability to use online banking. So you have no access to your money at all. I learned my lesson a few years ago in France. I will never report my debit card stolen if I’m away from home. This make tap and pay very insecure.
Yet last night’s news in Oz showed banks struggling to find enough IT gurus to fight scams. Here they have one of the best opportunities to minimise fraud and shelve it, are they all nuts?
Apple pay is awesome … Specially on the watch.
Get with it Australia
You know that your name in Japanese means “Paid Bodyguard,” right?
On this site, his name meant ‘clueless’ and ‘annoying’.
Lol.. Yup sure.. Coming from someone hiding behind an unregistered name ..
Yup. Its also a very famouse Kurosawa movie series 🙂
The thought would have been to have a trillion in cash and create the financial power house. Apple could have issued the Apple world card. Use your iPhone or iPad or Macbook … 4%, 5% is all that any company should be charging for money. prime is 0% or so. 10, 16, 20, 30%, interest should be illegal. no bank is paying that kind of interest on peoples’ savings account. They are using that money to make 10,20,30%. I want at least half of the percentage charged to others since they are using my money.
Apple should have bought Mastercard last year. Market cap was below 100B. EPS is 3.00 and ApplePay would be every where.
Create an Apple Bank in Australia then ill close my current banks right away!!!
Sounds like an opportunity for one of the banks to be first.
In the USA, AT&T (the Cingular) was first with the iPhone and it is the sole reason I am still with them to this day.
Unless MDN was right and it is an organized collusion, in which case it is on opportunity for the 5th and 6th largest bank to get some new customers.
Steve would have had this signed off before breakfast