The Commonwealth Bank will become the second of Australia’s big four banks to support Apple Pay in January 2019.
Together with Westpac and National Australia Bank they attempted to force Apple into collective bargaining in order to gain access to the iPhone’s NFC capabilities for their own wallets.
Apple argued that this was harmful to consumers by stifling innovation. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission agreed with Apple and prevented the action.
ANZ was the only of the big four banks to engage with Apple and launched Apple Pay in April 2016. Amex and a number of smaller Australian banks also support Apple Pay.
The Commonwealth Bank has released support of every other payment method but has long resisted Apple Pay. They have their own CommBank Tap and Pay in addition to Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Beem It, Garmin Pay, FitBit Pay.
A recent customer survey again made it evident to CommBank that it’s customers wanted Apple Pay. This will put increased pressure on the last of the two big banks to announce their support.
In additional to their main CommBank brand the Commonwealth Bank has also announced support for their budget BankWest brand.
