Commonwealth Bank (CBA) today implemented support for Apple Pay, making it the second of Australia's "Big Four" banks to offer the payments service. CBA is the biggest retail bank in Australia and was a notable Apple Pay holdout.
Multiple MacRumors readers in Australia have reported being able to add their Commonwealth Bank cards to Apple Pay, and Commonwealth Bank is listed as a partner on Apple's Apple Pay site in Australia.
Commonwealth Bank first announced plans to support Apple Pay last month, giving in to consumer demand after a years-long dispute with Apple over fees and access to the NFC chips in iPhones.
When announcing Apple Pay support, Commonwealth Bank Group Executive of Retail Banking services Angus Sullivan said that the bank had heard many requests from customers asking for Apple Pay, leading to its implementation.
"We are committed to making changes that benefit our customers and simplify our business. We will continue to look for more opportunities to innovate and listen, to ensure our customers get the best experience when they bank with us. Responding to customer demand for Apple Pay underscores our commitment to becoming a better, simpler bank.
Commonwealth Bank, along with NAB and Westpac, tried to collectively bargain with Apple to attempt to force Apple to open up the iPhone's NFC capabilities to support other digital wallets, like those offered by the banks themselves.
Apple said that this would be harmful to consumers and would stifle innovation, a position that Australian regulators agreed with when denying the banks authorization for collective bargaining.
Thanks for all your gentle prompts. We read them all. Now you #CanApplePay 👏 pic.twitter.com/RJM4IBpvhA — CommBank (@CommBank) January 22, 2019
ANZ was the only one of the four major banks in Australia to support Apple Pay when it launched in the country in April 2016. Other smaller banks later implemented support, but Commonwealth, NAB, and Westpac continued to hold out amid negotiations.
It's not clear if NAB and Westpac will implement support now that Commonwealth Bank has done so.
Bankwest in Australia is also now supporting Apple Pay, along with ASB Bank Limited in New Zealand and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Canada. Multiple smaller banks in the U.S. have implemented Apple Pay support as well, with a full list available on Apple's website.
Top Rated Comments
Westpac still is the second largest by market cap in the country.
To lastly state they are getting investigated for bad practices is fake news. There is a royal commission taking place and from my view Westpac have come through far better than any of the other majors and the only major to retain their wealth arm of the big four.
[doublepost=1548207713][/doublepost]I do love how much room we have to swing a cat (the one size is basically the same as the entire US) oh and we tend not to shoot each other too much.
Vending machines, sushi joints everywhere accept contactless payments so apple pay is available everywhere. It's baffling that places like "wall-mart" or what ever the american stores are called don't accept apple pay for some observed reason.
What ever retailer has a POS terminal from the last 10 years that accept contactless, accepts apple pay by default.
The other persons post you were attacking was just making the point that as a nation we have adopted to tech in this space far better than other locations. The same thing happened where we moved to 3G phones back in about 2000/2001 when the US were still trying to adopt Edge.