ANZ is the first Big Four bank on both Samsung Pay and Apple Pay

ANZ has joined Samsung Pay, becoming the first of the big four Australian banks to be on all three major digital wallets.

The bank had already been the only one of the majors to be on Apple Pay and was already available on Android Pay.

“Samsung has strong device market share in Australia and many of our customers love its open approach to technology, so it made sense for us to work with them in bringing this convenient and secure mobile payments solution to our customers,” said ANZ product managing director Bob Belan.

ANZ joins Westpac and a range of smaller institutions on the Samsung platform, which allows contactless payments through selected Samsung smartphones and Gear smartwatches.

The Commonwealth, NAB and Westpac have resisted getting onto Apple Pay while they, along with some smaller banks, fought to negotiate collectively with Apple in order to gain access to the iPhone’s near-field communications (NFC) chip which would allow their own apps to make contactless payments.

Apple has denied the request, arguing access would be a security risk and accusing the banks of acting as a cartel to “free load” from its technology.

Meanwhile, former Google Australia boss and now ANZ digital banking head Maile Carnegie said in February that her company had no hesitation in joining Apple Pay.

“People were asking specifically for Apple Pay. They were asking specifically for Android Pay. And if that’s what they want, we needed to figure out the most pragmatic way of giving that to them,” she said at the time.

 “We could look back and say, ‘I wish that was us, I wish they wanted our digital wallet as much as they wanted [Apple Pay]’. But they didn’t.”

Belan also stuck to a similar line this week regarding Samsung Pay, citing customer demand.

“At ANZ, we believe our customers are best placed to make their own choices about which digital wallet works best for them,” he said.

The addition of ANZ now sees Samsung Pay have more than 40 Australian credit and debit card brands in its stable, along with more than 100 loyalty cards. Internationally the platform has more than 870 bank partnerships.