Australia’s Macquarie, ING Direct See Opportunity in Apple Pay

ING Direct and Macquarie are embracing Apple Pay in Australia, with the financial services organizations joining ANZ Bank in supporting the digital payment platform while the country’s major banks continue to resist its emergence.

The firms evidently see an opportunity to get a competitive edge in the Australian market. As Reuters reports, each organization holds only about three percent marketshare, and neither operates physical banks in the country. As such, embracing a digital service like Apple Pay falls very much in line with their business strategies, which necessarily rely on technological innovation to outmaneuver the major Australian institutions.

In a statement announcing Macquarie Bank’s Apple Pay support, the company’s Head of Personal Banking, Ben Perham, said Macquarie has “seen strong interest in Apple Pay from our customers”, adding that it will be available later this month.

The support arrives as the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission finalizes its draft decision to bar a coalition of major banks from negotiating with Apple as a cartel over access to the iPhone’s NFC technology, a move Apple says is designed to delay or block Apple Pay as a competitor in the Australian market.

Source: Reuters