Apple Mobile Payment Restrictions Annoy Australia's Leading Banks

Apple is striving to bring its payment system as many countries as possible. That is why, even if you can make a deal with only one bank / credit card, it is enough to announce a new expansion. This has happened to some countries, including the Australia, which received the Apple pay in November 2015, starting by accepting only American Express.

It was expected that after eight months more banks would give in to the mobile payments system, but there seems to be a strong reason behind the resistance: the three largest Australian banks consider Ma to have “anti-competitive conduct” by allowing the iPhone to access the mobile. NFC only with your system.

Apple pay

According to the Reuters, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac all want NFC payments to be available for use by their own digital wallets, which they have already financed and developed. However, this is not currently the case as iPhone only makes payments using NFC if it is connected to Apple Pay wallet, not allowing third party solutions.

To prevent Ma from pursuing individual negotiations to convince one or more of the banks, they filed a request with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC, the Australian Competition Regulatory Agency) so that the negotiation is one, done together.

Representing the banks, Novantas senior consultant Lance Blockley commented on this issue:

This is to give Australians a real choice and better results. If accepted, the order would bring tremendous benefits to the entire Australian mobile payment landscape, including for public transportation fares, airline companies, box office, in-store loyalty and reward programs, and a number of applications that will still be developed.

This move by banks may draw the attention of others around the world and this would surely greatly affect the expansion of Ma's payment system. We only hope that it will open its eyes as competitors (Samsung Pay and Android Pay) already accept mobile payments from third party applications.

(via MacRumors)