Australian adoption of Apple Pay has been slower than Apple would like, mostly due the battle between the Cupertino firm and the big four Aussie banks over the NFC chip in iPhone. Basically, the banks want access to the chip, while Apple isn’t going to give it up.
However, good news today for Apple Pay down under, as The Commonwealth Bank of Australia – or CommBank – has finally announced support for Apple Pay.
CommBank made the announcement in a tweet this evening, saying that Apple Pay will launch for its personal customers in January of 2019. Other details are unclear at this point, but this announcement has been a long time coming for CommBank customers.
Apple Pay is coming for CommBank personal customers January 2019 🙌🎉 pic.twitter.com/VHeZWKBoRp
— CommBank (@CommBank) December 14, 2018
CommBank is a member of the “big four” banks in Australia, the other three are National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and Westpac (WBC). Until now, ANZ was the only bank in the country to offer support for Apple’s mobile payments solution.
The banks have battled Apple for access to the iPhone’s built-in NFC hardware, as they desire to use the hardware for their own payment platforms. To the surprise of no one, excepting the banks, Apple has denied them access.
