ACCC Ruling a Setback for Australian Banks Fighting Apple Pay

A coalition of Australia’s biggest banks has lost its bid for interim approval to negotiate with Apple as a block over access to the iPhone’s NFC technology.

Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and Westpac filed their formal application to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission last month. It was an effort to compete against Apple’s mobile payment service, with the banks aiming to force Apple to allow their own mPayment apps to operate on its iPhone devices. Apple, meanwhile, argued that allowing them to access the technology would compromise users’ security.

The ACCC won’t issue a formal ruling on the matter until October, but in the meantime the banks had sought interim approval to start negotiating with Apple as a block. Now, the ACCC has denied that request due to “the complexity of the issues and the limited time available,” according to its Chairman.

The ruling may offer some further validation to ANZ, one of Australia’s biggest banks and a defector from the coalition that officially offered Apple Pay support this past spring. AppleInsider reports that ANZ’s online account applications increased by 20 percent after it went ahead with Apple Pay support, which may have remaining members of the bank coalition wondering whether they are on the right course in the wake of this ACCC ruling.

Source: AppleInsider