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Australia: Banks butt heads with Apple pay

By  |  July 27, 2016

The three largest Australian banks — National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp — have partnered up to launch an antitrust application with regulators in an attempt to collectively negotiate with Apple over whether or not their own in-house electronic payments apps can be set up to run properly on an iPhone.

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    Currently, Apple does not allow any third-party electronic payments apps on the iPhone to make use of the NFC technology that comes in all models after the 6. The three banks argue that because Apple allows iPhone apps to access technological features such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, restricting the technology through which mobile wallets function, known as Near Field Technology, constitutes anti-competitive behavior.

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    The filing represents the latest in a long running struggle between Apple and various financial institutions down under, as banks are reluctant to surrender their customers to Apple Pay merely because their iPhones won’t give those same customers access to the apps banks have dedicated time and money to building out in-house.

    Apple did not offer any immediate comment on the situation.

    Full Content: Payments

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