Westpac Becomes Last of ‘Big Four’ Australian Banks to Provide Support for Apple Pay

Westpac has finally added support for Apple Pay, becoming the last of Australia’s big four banks to offer support for Apple’s contactless payments solution to its customers.

Westpac – the country’s oldest bank – announced on Tuesday that the service is now available to its customers. The other “big four” banks – ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank, and National Australia Bank – already offer Apple Pay to their customers.

“We are pleased to announce that Westpac customers can now use ‌Apple Pay‌ to make fast and secure payments. This comes at an important time for our customers, who are looking for an alternative to cash,” Westpac Group chief executive of consumer David Lindberg said.

“We have seen a significant increase in customers using digital banking in recent weeks as more Australians stay at home. With the introduction of ‌Apple Pay‌, it will now be even easier for customers to pay for goods and services in stores, via apps or online without the need for a card or wallet.”

As reported by ZDNet, Westpac actually announced the availability of Apple Pay across several of its financial services providers back in December, but regular Westpac customers had been told that they had to wait until June 2020.

Westpac had originally resisted adopting Apple’s payments solution, and had collectively tried to negotiate with Apple for access to the NFC chip inside of Apple devices to allow their own payment systems to work alongside Apple Pay.

The banks had pressed for access to the NFC chip, claiming it would allow them to offer competing wallets, offering increased choice for consumers and that competition would spur increased innovation in digital wallets.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) eventually denied the banks the right to negotiate a deal.

The full list of ‌Apple Pay‌ countries and regions is available on Apple’s website.

Adding Your Credit or Debit Card to Apple Pay

Once Apple Pay arrives in their country, users can add their credit or debit card to the service by doing the following:

• iPhone users running iOS 12 can go to the Wallet app and tap the “+” icon in the upper right-hand corner to begin, and then just follow the prompts. Users of iPads with Touch ID can add a card to the service to use in apps by going into “Settings” -> “Wallet & Apple Pay” to add a card there.
• Apple Watch users will need to enter the Watch app on their iPhone, Tap on the “Wallet & Apple Pay” option, and then tap the “Add Credit or Debit Card” option.

For more information about the service, visit the Apple website.