The final “Big Four” Australian bank, Westpac, the second largest bank in Australia, has announced support for Apple’s Apple Pay is coming across its various brands by mid-2020.
Clancy Yeates for The Sydney Morning Herald:
The country’s second largest bank on Thursday said the payment service, which effectively allows customers to upload their cards to their phone, is now available for the St George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne brands.
The rollout comes after rivals Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank ushered in Apple Pay earlier this year, following a brawl between Apple and three of the big four banks in 2016 which delayed the widespread introduction of the payment service in Australia. ANZ Bank has been providing Apple Pay since 2016, and it has claimed the service is helping it sell a range of products including home loans, transaction accounts and mortgages.
In 2016, NAB, CBA and Westpac attempted to conduct a collective boycott of Apple Pay in a bid to negotiate as a bloc and squeeze out a better commercial deal from the technology giant. However, the competition watchdog rejected the banks’ request, prompting the banks to each negotiate with Apple individually.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple wins, yet again – luckily for Westpac customers.
Dear Aussie banks: No, you cannot have access to iPhone’s NFC chip. Protecting iOS users’ security is of paramount importance. — MacDailyNews, November 14, 2016
To be honest, Westpac has had the most backward technology offering of the Big Four for quite some time so it wasn’t really a surprise they were holding back. I suspect they weren’t even capable of it and the court case was as much a stalling tactic as it was an attempt to hang on to their old school market power as Australia’s first bank.
Being Australia’s first and oldest existing bank makes it a venerable institution. It surrendered to gentrification.
Too many chickens flying the coop. Many of them won’t be back. They have been asleep at the wheel for years, including not noticing 23 million illegal money laundering transactions. Anyone remember when you could actually trust a bank?
I donated $2 to change.org last month for a petition to make Westpac support Apple Pay. I’d like to think I have helped to make this special moment happen. 😜 I might also add that on another site I made a point that I was giving Westpac till end of January otherwise I was migrating my accounts to ANZ (who had the decency to join up from day one). Maybe that is what tipped the scales? 🤣
It’s about time.
I’m an Aussie & have been with Westpac for 35 years. Huge Apple fan & was so pissed when they joined the other banks to fight Apple Pay. Pathetic behaviour. So glad they were forced to fold.
Their subsidiary, St. George folded at the same time.