When starting negotiations for Australia in order to take its mobile payments service, Apple was met with great resistance from banks, which were outraged by only the Apple Pay be able to access NFC devices, eliminating the possibilities of any other application using this technology.
After the three major Australian banks Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac filed an application with the Australian Competition Regulatory Agency (ACCC) to be able to trade as a single entity, now it was Ma's turn to comment on the case.
The Australian Financial Review revealed today that the Apple document sent to the ACCC had “energetic” three pages explaining the possible consequences if the NFC code were opened by the Cupertino giant.
Apple maintains very high security standards for our customers when they use our devices to make payments.
Providing easy access to NFC antenna for bank applications would fundamentally decrease the high level of security that Apple seeks to have on our devices.
In the document, it was reported that banks want to force Apple to agree to some unacceptable terms, such as charging an extra fee to customers who choose to use Apple Pay.
Claiming that the banks were based on "insinuations and distortions", Ma says that the order could harm consumers and delay innovations in the country.
Unfortunately, and based on their limited understanding, (banks) consider Apple Pay to be a competitive threat.
These banks want to maintain complete control over their customers.
The present application is only the last tactic used by these competing banks to decrease Apple's entry into the Australian market.
Allowing them to form a cartel to collectively dictate terms for new business models and services would set a worrying precedent and delay the introduction of innovative technologies.
Marg Demmer was responsible for signing this document, which was an interesting choice because he was already part of the ANZ Banking Group, one of the banks that accepted Apple Pay.
Even with this support, Ma says it needs the help of the three big banks so that its service can achieve an expressive penetration in the land of kangaroos.
(via AppleInsider)
