Westpac, the second largest bank in Australia, has become the last of the Australian big four banks to announce plans to implement support for Apple Pay across its brands in 2020.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Apple Pay is now available for the St. George, BankSA, and Bank of Melbourne brands. Customers of these banks with an eligible Visa credit or debit cards can now use Apple Pay.
Westpac customers will gain access to Apple’s mobile payments solution by June 2020. The rollout to the main Westpac brand will take longer due to Westpac’s different banking platform. As the Westpac system is updated, Apple Pay will roll out to the banks regional brands.
“We want to assure Westpac customers we are working to bring them Apple Pay as quickly as possible, while we roll-out the technology across our different banking platforms,” said chief executive of consumer banking David Lindberg.
Westpac was the last Apple Pay holdout among the “big four” Australian banks. The bank had joined NAB and Commonwealth Bank in an attempt to collectively bargain with Apple as part of an attempt to force Apple to open up the iPhone’s NFC capabilities to provide support for other digital wallets, like those offered by Westpac itself.
However, Apple fought back, saying such a move would be harmful to consumers and would stifle innovation. Australian banking regulators refused to allows the banks to collectively bargain with Apple.
ANZ, who was not involved in the attempt to force Apple to open up access to the iPhone’s NFC chip, has supported Apple Pay since its Australian launch. Commonwealth Bank, which is Australia’s largest bank, has offered Apple Pay support since January 2019. NAB began offering the payment solution as of May 2019.
