Australia's largest bank finally caves, announces imminent Apple Pay support

AppleInsider

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Thursday announced it will finally begin supporting Apple Pay starting in January 2019.

Apple Pay

CommBank is the second of the four major banks in Australia to adopt Apple's mobile payments platform after a contentious negotiation period kept the service out of the country for months.

The announcement was made today via CommBank's Twitter account.

Apple Pay is coming for CommBank personal customers January 2019 pic.twitter.com/VHeZWKBoRp

-- CommBank (@CommBank)

December 14, 2018

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group currently supports Apple Pay, while National Australia Bank and Westpac have not revealed plans for adoption.

There has been much back and forth between Apple and Australia's banks, with the institutions at one point demanding direct access to iPhone's NFC chip to create their own authentication protocol. As part of struggle, Australia's "big-three" banks -- Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp --
sought to collectively negotiate for the installation of non-Apple Pay software on iPhone hardware, threatening a boycott.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission denied the request in a draft determination in 2016, then again in a final determination in 2017, prompting the banks to reconsider their position on the matter.

arthurba

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

EsquireCats

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

ApplePay did launch in Australia several years ago - but this announcement is particularly meaningful as this is Australia's largest bank, and was seen as the primary instigator in trying to obtain additional concessions from Apple, which would have been anti-consumer but helpful to their profitability. (For reference Australia's banks are the world's most profitable, taking nearly 3% of the local GDP.)

anome

About bloody time. With CBA caving, Westpac and NAB are only a matter of time.

And Mattinoz is correct, Westpac and NAB are still holdng out as of this posting. Unless something has happened in the last five minutes.

kitatit

Ah, not so fast.
Commonwealth bank has caved in to finally join ANZ but the other two major banks haven’t yet.

I’m still waiting for Westpac to allow me to use my iPhone 6 I bought 4 years ago. Apple Pay being a major selling point I was keen to enjoy using. It’s only taken 4 plus years for these corrupt clueless thugs to realise, for once, they don’t get to wear the pants this time. 

Im no Apple Fan boy but what truely  amazes me is that these multi billion dolllar businesses, either have, nonexistent, incompetent or flat out ignore their market research departments. 

Apple may be a big arrogant jerk but we choose their Coolaid over Australian Banks any day. 

ANZ- pragmatic gangster. 
Commonwealth Bank - delusional gangster who finally got with the program.
Westpac- embarrassing delusional gangster, still holding out
NAB- embarrassing delusional gangster, still holding out.

Watch them give it up pretty quick now.

*^%#you Westpac!

anome

The Fin Review is saying that it was due to huge customer demand. I expect the Royal Commission into Banking and its findings also factored into it. I suspect CBA saw this as a quick win to try and claw back some public opinion.

mattinoz

mad4erit said:

mattinoz said:

Ummm... fact check please.

This would make CommBank the only the second of the four Majors to support ApplePay not the last.

Still two hold outs unless you know something Google doesn't

They clearly stated it’s the 2nd of four, what’s the beef?

None now it's been edited....but earlier.

fafot

Took them over a year, lost many ppl that switched to other banks. Now they realise that the supposedly “huge” profits that Apple will collect from Apple Pay and the bank will lose are not worth losing customers that will never come back to the Commonwealth Bank.

lolliver

fafot said:

Took them over a year, lost many ppl that switched to other banks. Now they realise that the supposedly “huge” profits that Apple will collect from Apple Pay and the bank will lose are not worth losing customers that will never come back to the Commonwealth Bank.

Yep, my bank lost me to ANZ within a week of ANZ announcing support for Apple Pay as I knew it would take the other banks a long time to support it. 

Can't imagine it will take NAB or Westpac long to cave now. 

philboogie

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

Succeed? The service is from 2014, and yet it's only available in ≈ 25 countries. Hardly a succes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Supported_countries

laytech

Yay, finally! Although I am not with con (comm) bank this is sure to embarrass and/or pressure Westpac and National to follow suit.

i suspect Con bank realised their own half baked attempt, whilst functional was not practical, uptake minimal but above all else it was costing them to keep it updated, so I am sure the cost factor played apart as much as anything else.

in either case, simply terrific news. Until Westpac follow suit, I will continue to use my ANZ and Amex card. Come on Westpac sort your .......... out. Give your customers what they want. 

amperzand

Commonwealth Bank's reluctance to adopt Apple Pay, along with all the dodgy stuff the Banking Royal Commission uncovered about them, led me to change to Bank Australia about 6 months ago. I haven't looked back since. It's really nice to know my money isn't being used to invest in fossil fuels, clearing the Amazon, terrorists and corruption, and Bank Australia have Apple Pay.

Rayz2016

Same thing happened with Barclays in the UK. They said they’d launch their own solution to compete with Apple Pay, and customers started leaving before they got their alternative off the ground. 

And when their alternatives turned out to be a cumbersome key fob, a wristband that doesn’t do much else, and a sticker for the back of your phone:


the customer attrition got worse. 

Barclays caved and now they have one of the best Apple Pay setups in the UK. 

Even if folk don’t intend to use contactless, they don’t like the idea of their bank denying them a service due to corporate stupidity. 

StrangeDays

philboogie said:

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

Succeed? The service is from 2014, and yet it's only available in ≈ 25 countries. Hardly a succes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Supported_countries

What rubbish. AP is certainly a success. That some countries banks haven’t got with the program is a detriment to them, but doesn’t make AP not a success. Try again. 

In addition, those countries are most likely the places one would prefer to live over the nations that don’t offer it, which line up with places of poverty and other hardship. 

lostkiwi

StrangeDays said:

philboogie said:

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

Succeed? The service is from 2014, and yet it's only available in ≈ 25 countries. Hardly a succes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Supported_countries

What rubbish. AP is certainly a success. That some countries banks haven’t got with the program is a detriment to them, but doesn’t make AP not a success. Try again. 

In addition, those countries are most likely the places one would prefer to live over the nations that don’t offer it, which line up with places of poverty and other hardship. 

Great map.  
I'm very surprised that South Korea isn't on board already.  Ditto with the Baltic countries, especially Estonia.

22july2013

StrangeDays said:

philboogie said:

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

Succeed? The service is from 2014, and yet it's only available in ≈ 25 countries. Hardly a succes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Supported_countries

What rubbish. AP is certainly a success. That some countries banks haven’t got with the program is a detriment to them, but doesn’t make AP not a success. Try again. 

In addition, those countries are most likely the places one would prefer to live over the nations that don’t offer it, which line up with places of poverty and other hardship. 

The last area to turn blue on this map will be Antarctica. Their government and their banks are still living in the stone age. Their cell phone coverage is pathetic too. No Apple Stores, either. In fact, no stores of any kind. No phone, no lights, no motorcars - not a single luxury.

LordeHawk

philboogie said:

arthurba said:

First Germany and now Australia.  Apple Pay is a wonderfully secure design. Really glad to see it succeeding in the marketplace. 

Succeed? The service is from 2014, and yet it's only available in ≈ 25 countries. Hardly a succes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pay#Supported_countries

Very shallow point to base your argument on.  I would’ve used a quantifiable approach, instead of speculation.  Something that illuminates the real world complexities encompassing;  an entrenched banking/payment industries, complex geographic/political legalities, security, convenience, App/Web integration, and privacy.

Apple is a platform, not a single item to draw metrics from.  By your logic the iPhone isn’t a success, because Android is the dominant mobile OS...

Thanks for playing

anome

And already, the rumours about Westpac and NAB flipping have started.

MoorePhotography

It’s about time. This is all about greed. The big three banks in Australia do NOT like anyone making money where they think they should be getting a bigger cut (generally for doing f#$k all which is their approach to customer service in general). I used to be a senior level executive in one of them and I can tell you that profits are all that matter. Executive level salaries are set by the board which is made up of the major shareholders who benefit from profits so guess who the execs are trying to please? Certainly not your average retail bank customer.

I’m most sad that Westpac was allowed to buy St George Bank because it too is “holding out for bigger profits” because it’s owner insists it toe the line. St G used to be a real innovator. Now it’s just a lackey to its greedy master.

Worst thing Paul Keating ever did was deregulate the banking industry and let them largely “self-regulate” which they took to mean “no regulation” and they’ve been getting away with criminal behaviour ever since. The Royal Commission will barely scratch the surface and the current government has not the balls to do anything to upset its friends in the big banks.

Sigh........

steveau

laytech said:

Yay, finally! Although I am not with con (comm) bank this is sure to embarrass and/or pressure Westpac and National to follow suit.

i suspect Con bank realised their own half baked attempt, whilst functional was not practical, uptake minimal but above all else it was costing them to keep it updated, so I am sure the cost factor played apart as much as anything else.

in either case, simply terrific news. Until Westpac follow suit, I will continue to use my ANZ and Amex card. Come on Westpac sort your .......... out. Give your customers what they want. 

Me too. NAB lost me to ANZ, just so I could use Apple Pay.