Mobile Payments – Page 4 – Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

Apple Pay dispute may mean less opportunity to pay with your mobile

As people increasingly reach for their phone to pay for goods in Australia, existing players in the contactless payment industry are trying to seek competitive advantage. Four of Australia’s leading banks are trying to secure collective bargaining rights for technology that grants access to Apple Pay.

This service is currently is only available to customers with American Express proprietary cards and ANZ American Express companion cards and ANZ Visa cardholders.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Payments System Board noted that innovations in mobile wallets can boost consumer choice and convenience. Cardholders may be able to consolidate a range of payment cards into a single app on their mobile device.

Australia is one of the leading countries in the take-up of contactless payment transactions. If Apple is blocking banks from offering this service to their customers, it should be questioned.

Australia ahead when it comes to contactless payments

The way that Australians pay for the goods and services that they consume is rapidly changing. The use of cash as a payment mechanism has continued to decline as consumers shift to electronic payment methods, especially for smaller transactions.

Credit and debit cards are the most frequently used non-cash payments methods. In the financial year 2015-16, Australian cardholders made around 6.9 billion payments, worth $538 billion. That is an increase in value on the previous year of around 7%.
Payments System Board Annual Report
This trend is largely due to the prevalence of contactless technology at the point-of-sale. For example, some Australian banks claim that 74% of all MasterCard in-store transactions are now contactless and that per capita, contactless payments in Australia are amongst the highest in the world. Added to that, the A$100 cap on such transactions is the highest in the world.

The contactless payments industry has made substantial investments in the technologies that underpin convenient and secure payments. In particular this has seen the deployment of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, used to accept both contactless card payments and mobile wallet payments.

Merchant terminals that accept contactless payments via the NFC technology are now commonplace in Australia. Mobile payment applications such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay have all been recently launched in Australia.

Apple Pay arrived in November 2015, originally only for proprietary American Express cards. In April 2016, it was made available also for ANZ issued American Express companion cards and Visa cards.

In June 2016, Samsung Pay launched its mobile wallet application in Australia, in partnership with American Express and Citibank. Finally, Android Pay launched in July 2016 with ANZ, American Express, Macquarie and a wide range of credit unions and mutual banks, using Cuscal as their service provider.

The Apple dispute

Four banks – the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, National Australia Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank – have applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), to collectively negotiate with Apple Pay in Australia.

In their evidence to the ACCC, the banks accuse Apple of trying to piggyback on their investment in Australia’s contactless payment infrastructure, while remaining “intransigent, closed and controlling”, in dictating terms for access to Apple Pay.

The banks claim that Apple is seeking for itself the exclusive use of Australia’s existing NFC terminal infrastructure, “which has been built and paid for by Australian banks and merchants for the benefit of all Australians”.

This negotiation is worth a lot to the banks, the banks claim Apple has approximately 40% of the smartphone market in Australia.

The banks dismiss Apple’s claim that opening up access to the NFC function would undermine the security of mobile wallets. The banks point to the experience of Apple in China and Japan, where Apple Pay was forced to modify its demands in order to maintain parity with Samsung Pay.

Besides seeking non-exclusive access to the NFC and standardised security for all mobile payment systems, the four banks want price transparency on transaction costs for mobile payments within Australia. This is an ongoing objective for the RBA.

In its recent review of card payments regulation, the RBA set out to ensure that its reforms would promote competition and efficiency in the payments system by improving price signals and thus encouraging efficient payment choices for consumers.

Apple Pay derives most of its income from taking part of the Merchant Service Fee (MSF) that merchants pay to the card issuers. In the USA, where contactless payments have yet to take off, MSF’s are much higher than in Australia. According to media reports, Apple Pay take around 0.15% of the value of every credit card transaction via its mobile wallet in that country.
Apple has locked its devices so only Apple Pay can be used to make contactless payments. Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters
In Australia, the average fee paid by merchants to the financial institution for transactions on MasterCard and Visa cards was 0.72% of the value of the transaction in June 2016. This followed a review of the calculation of the interchange element of the MSF’s in November 2015.

These interchange fees are now 0.50% of the value of the transaction for the credit card schemes and 12 cents per transaction for the debit card schemes. So there is not as much interchange revenue to share in Australia as there is in the USA.

In its deal with Apple Pay, media reports say that ANZ has given up some of its interchange fees to Apple, but the actual amount has not been disclosed.

In a submission to the ACCC, the four banks’ pointed out if Apple Pay were to gain a dominant share of all mobile wallet transactions in Australia, then consumers would not be aware of the costs that are associated with this method of payment. This would conflict with the RBA’s objective of improving signalling to consumers the price of each payment option.

The four banks have received support for their bid to negotiate collectively with Apple from a number of card schemes, merchants, other banks and payment associations. The ACCC is expected to give its decision on their claim in November 2016.

Is Australia is serious about offering consumers as wide a variety of payment options as possible and making consumers aware of the costs of each option? If so, then everyone should be able to use whichever payment method suits them best, no matter which mobile phone or bank they use.

Author: Steve Worthington, Adjunct Professor, Swinburne University of Technology

Banks Up The Ante On Access To Mobile Payment Wallets

Here is a joint statement on behalf of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and Westpac regarding the current ACCC investigation relating to access to mobile payments via third party wallets.

Australians should have the freedom to choose which mobile wallet they use for contactless payments, regardless of what mobile device they use.

This is why a group of Australian financial institutions lodged an application with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) earlier this year, seeking authorisation to enter joint negotiations with providers of third-party mobile wallets.

The four banks – Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and Westpac Bank – have now provided the ACCC with an extensive response to a range of incorrect and potentially misleading submissions made to the ACCC by opposed parties.

In the response, the Applicants make clear:

The application to enter joint negotiations is restricted to negotiations with Apple;

The focus of the negotiation will be over access to the NFC (Near Field Communication) function on iOS devices;

By locking out any independent access to the NFC function on iOS devices, Apple is seeking for itself the exclusive use of Australia’s existing NFC terminal infrastructure for the making of integrated mobile payments using iOS devices. Yet, this infrastructure was built and paid for by Australian banks and merchants for the benefit of all Australians;

Apple’s claim that providing the Applicant’s access to the NFC function would undermine security or customer experience is completely baseless.

Android, Windows and BlackBerry phones all provide access to their NFC in line with global standards of security for contactless payments set out by the card schemes. There is no evidence that Android Pay, Samsung Pay, or any of the mobile payment apps that have been developed for those platforms have affected security;

The concerns raised by the Applicants on competitive access are not unique to Australia, with similar issues raised in a number of jurisdictions across the world; and

The application also focuses on security standards and transparency in fees. Security claims and “benefits” offered to consumers with respect to Apple Pay are exaggerated.

Australia already has a significantly advanced, secure, convenient and world-leading contactless payments environment and the Applicants want to make sure these standards are maintained. Transparency in fees means that Australian consumers who do not want to use Apple Pay should not be burdened with costs that are imposed by Apple solely for its benefit.

“Our application remains focussed on providing Australian consumers with real choice and better outcomes for mobile payments, mobile wallets, and a range of other potentially NFC-powered functions such as public transport, airlines, store loyalty and rewards programs, and many more applications yet to be developed,” payments specialist and spokesperson on behalf of the Applicants, Lance Blockley, said.

“This is about the future of mobile payments in Australia. Will it be ‘Apple’s way or no way’, or a genuine level playing field so all consumers can have the best digital services, no matter what device they own.”

The response also reiterates that the Applicants are not taking this action because they want to delay or prevent Apple Pay from coming to Australia.

The extensive response from the Applicants is available via the ACCC website here. Accompanying the response is a range of additional expert economic commentary and reports.

To date, the Applicants’ submission has received a number of supportive submissions including from a major retailer, fintech companies and card schemes. Coles, Australian Retailers Association (ARA), Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA), Heritage Bank, Bluechain, Australia Settlements Limited and Tyro support the collective negotiations objective to gain access to the iPhone’s NFC. Also, APCA and MasterCard support ensuring Apple Pay meets minimum security standards – and collective negotiation on pass-through of fees is supported by the ARA, ASL, eftpos and Heritage Bank.

The Mobile Payment Business To Consumer Gulf

PayPal Australia have just released their first report on mobile payments in Australia, and highlight there is a significant gap between consumer willingness to use mobile payments, compared with business capability to receive them. Once again, in the digital disruption stakes, consumers are ahead of the curve!

Almost three-quarters (71%) of respondents are using their mobiles to make payments, however only 49% of businesses are optimised to accept them.

The number of consumers transacting on mobile is perhaps not surprising, considering that Australia is a country with one of the highest levels of mobile penetration globally with 80% of the Australian 18+ population having a smartphone. Among consumers aged 18-34 the use of mobile devices for payments at 85% is significantly higher than the 71% average.

Despite these impressive consumer mCommerce levels, 51% of businesses state that they are not optimised for mobile sales. Furthermore, almost one-third (31%) of businesses state they have no plans to change this. This gap is reflected in the proportion (26%) of businesses which have zero sales via mobile device.

When it comes to the devices that Australians prefer for making online purchases, desk and laptop computers are almost equally the favoured choice with 69% of respondents preferring to make payments on them. The remaining 31% of consumers prefer to make payments on their mobile phones (18%) or tablets (14%).

Of those who prefer to use a mobile phone, those aged 18-34 dominate at 30% preference, compared to 15% preference for those aged 35-49 and 7% for the 50+ demographic.

The PayPal mCommerce Index finds that those with an income of over $100k show the highest preference for mobile payments, at 37%. Nonetheless, those with incomes under $30k make up almost one-quarter (24%) of those preferring to use their mobiles for payments.

More than a third (36%) of respondents are making mobile payments at least once a week, while one in five (22%) make mobile payments more than once a week. Millennial consumers (18-34) are the most prolific mobile shoppers with nearly half of this group (47%) making a mobile payment at least once per week. High frequency mobile payments are not limited to the young, one quarter (24%) of 50+ respondents are making mobile purchases and payments at least once a week.

The average mCommerce spend is $330 per month and 22% of respondents are spending more than $500 per month. These figures establish a benchmark against which we will continue to track in ongoing PayPal mCommerce Index reports.

When reflecting on levels of consumer mCommerce spending, age is not a strong contributing factor to high spend. In fact, across the age groups surveyed, consumers who are spending more than $500 per month, were notably similar at 23%, 26% and 19% across the 18-34, 35-49 and 50+ age groups, respectively.

Bill payments is the category dominating mobile transactions. Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents made phone, utility, insurance and other bill payments via a mobile device over the last six months. Other categories strongly supported by mCommerce are Tickets (53%), Clothing & Accessories (43%) and Travel (38%).

These top performing categories represent consumer transactions with major, mainstream businesses with well-established online commerce platforms. Regular and familiar use, plus lessened concerns for security by consumers, are believed to be factors in promoting mCommerce within these categories.

When Australian consumers get time to themselves, they are more inclined to make an online purchase or payment by mobile device – with ‘dual-screening’ being commonplace. Eighty-two percent of respondents said they engaged in mCommerce when relaxing at home or watching TV; almost half (45%) noted that they were engaged in mCommerce when taking a break at work or school; and just over one-quarter (26%) used the time when commuting on public transport for mobile purchasing or payments.

The data shows that although the majority of consumers do not indicate that a mobile is their preferred device for online purchases, they are using their mobile devices to shop when they are at home, presumably when they also have access to a laptop or desktop computer. Understanding the prevalence of dualscreening can help to inform future mCommerce positioning, marketing and consumer targeting.

Social commerce is rapidly emerging as the new frontier for online commerce. Already, 11% of respondents have made a purchase via a social platform. As channels including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, where consumers are highly engaged, emerge as commercial avenues, Australian businesses need to adapt if they want to maximise their online commerce opportunities.

Currently, 7% of surveyed businesses accept payments via social media sites or apps.

Despite consumer appetite, the PayPal mCommerce Index finds that 89% of businesses have no intention of accepting payments via social media within the next 6 months.

The survey was executed through Roy Morgan Research Ltd based on the survey responses of 996 consumers and 106 businesses using an online self-completion survey.

Visa to banks: Open APIs or be doomed

According to Computerworld, Financial institutions that fail to make their APIs openly available are “doomed”, says Visa’s ANZ head of product Rob Walls.

“Anyone that stands still in the current environment of technology change is doomed. We have to continue to evolve – because consumers are expecting it,” he said.

In February, the payments giant published more than 40 APIs “for every payment need” on its Visa Developer platform. The web portal also provides access to sandboxes, documentation and test data.

“We came to the view that there isn’t a single entity that can own all of the innovation in payments,” Walls said. “We’ve been operating as a payment network for almost 60 years. Previously our network was fairly closed, only those who were financial institutions or merchants or tech companies, that were authorised to access it, were able to engage with us.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve seen disruption in many industries, we’ve seen organisations change the way they’re using technology. With with millions of developers around the world today, which is forecast to grow, the value really is going to come from co-creation.”

Walls said that there were around 140 services within Visa that could be made available and there was a push internally to post more.

“There’s now a bit of internal competition around how quickly can I get my product or service into the API set. You want more people using it.”

APIs already published were selected based on client demand and the ease at which they could be securely extracted and made available for external consumption, Walls said.

Australian financial bodies have been cautious in making APIs openly available, citing cost and security concerns.

The situation is a source of frustration for local startups and fintech companies. In a submission to the Productivity Commission – currently conducting an inquiry into improving the availability and use of public and private sector data including open banking APIs – industry association Fintech Australia said failing to mandate open data would make Australia less competitive on the global stage.

“If Australia does not mandate an Open Financial Data model that is in line with global standards, or leaves banks to implement Open Banking APIs at their own pace, we will deny consumers the benefits of greater competition and improved financial services, and risk our banks becoming less agile and less competitive than their international peers,” the peak body wrote.

European regulation – the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – requires that EU banks make it easier to share customer transaction and account data with third-party providers. Last year the UK government established the Open Banking Working Group with a remit to design a framework for an open API standard.

Open minds

Financial institutions were increasingly coming round to the potential of sharing APIs and drawing on the developer community, Walls said.

ANZ bank has made a limited number available via its Developer Hub and CIO Scott Collary announced in July that: “We want to be a more open bank”. NAB ran a hackathon at the end of last year, with monitored access to a number of its APIs.

“I think what’s really driving it is the fear of disruption. But that language is changing amongst financial institutions in Australia. Instead of being disrupted how can we work with the disruptors to improve the overall service?” Walls said

“The banks and Visa are of the view that innovation is able to come from anywhere and if it’s able to be integrated into my business in a fast, simple, viable way – then I don’t necessarily have to build it.”

Later this month, Aussie and Kiwi start-ups will pitch business ideas that make use of Visa services in a competition, ‘The Everywhere Initiative’.

Successful startups that can develop innovative applications using Visa APIs ‘to solve business challenges and bring new ideas to payments’ in three categories stand to win cash prizes and the chance to run a pilot with Visa.

ANZ Offers Mobile-Pay Services To Mastercard Customers

ANZ today announced its Mastercard customers can now use their smartphone to make tap and go payments with Android Pay or Apple Pay.

From today, more than 500,000 ANZ customers with a Mastercard credit card can use contactless payments.

Mastercard was the first in the world to offer contactless payments, and Australians are fast adopters with more than seven out of ten Mastercard transactions now made using contactless technology at over 750,000 terminals across Australia. Consumers are now able to enjoy safe and convenient payments from their devices in store, within apps and soon on the web.

ANZ uses tokenisation security to protect card numbers by never sharing them with the merchant or saving them on the device.

The announcement comes after ANZ became the first major Australian bank to offer Android Pay to customers in July this year and after ANZ this year became the first major Australian bank to offer Apple Pay to customers. ANZ remains the only major Australian bank to offer these services.

ACCC continues its review of banks’ application for authorisation to collectively bargain with Apple

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it is continuing to assess the applications for authorisation by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, National Australia Bank, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank after deciding not to grant the banks’ request for interim authorisation at this early stage of its assessment process.

The banks wish to engage in collective negotiation and boycott activities with Apple in relation to its e-commerce Apple Pay platform and with other third party wallet providers in Australia.

“The ACCC has considered interim authorisation within a short timeframe at the request of the applicants. However, given the complexity of the issues and the limited time available, the ACCC has decided not to grant interim authorisation at this time. The ACCC requires more time to consult and consider the views of industry, consumers, and other interested parties,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

In deciding not to grant interim authorisation, the ACCC took into account the potential for continuing effects on competition in the market, the extent of urgency for the request, any possible harm to the applicants or other parties if interim authorisation is granted or denied, and possible public benefits and detriments.

“The entire ACCC authorisation process usually takes up to six months, including the release of a draft decision for consultation before making a final decision. We expect to release a draft decision in October 2016. The ACCC’s decision not to grant interim authorisation at this time is not indicative of whether or not a draft or final authorisation will be granted,” Mr Sims said.

The banks, together with other participating card issuers, are seeking authorisation to collectively negotiate and boycott on a range of issues. One of these issues relates to the banks’ ability to utilise Near Field Communication hardware on Apple devices to enable contactless payments to be made through the banks’ own digital wallets.

A digital wallet is an application that can allow consumers to tap and pay using their phone and can store other information, such as loyalty or membership cards. Other issues for collective negotiations include appropriate industry standards for digital wallets and the banks’ ability to pass on any fees charged by a third party digital wallet provider.

Background

On 26 July 2016, the applicants sought authorisation on behalf of themselves and potentially other credit and debit card issuers to engage in limited collective negotiation with Apple and other providers of third-party mobile wallet services.

The applicants also sought authorisation to enter into a limited form of collective boycott in relation to a third-party mobile wallet provider while collective negotiations with that provider are ongoing.

The applicants sought a decision on interim authorisation within 28 days of lodging their application.

Notes to editors

Authorisation provides statutory protection from court action for conduct that might otherwise raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Broadly, the ACCC may grant an authorisation when it is satisfied that the public benefit resulting from the conduct outweighs any public detriment.

About the authorisation process

Where urgent interim authorisation has been requested, the ACCC aims to make a decision on it within 28 days. When granted, the applicants can engage in the conduct while the substantive application is considered by the ACCC.

Generally, the ACCC can grant authorisation if it is satisfied that the public benefit from the conduct outweighs any public detriment, including any lessening of competition.

The statutory period for the assessment of an authorisation is six months (unless extended by a maximum of an additional six months).

The ACCC is required to publish a draft decision (‘determination’) in relation to an application. This is usually 3-4 months after receiving an application.

The ACCC will conduct public consultation with interested parties both before and after a draft determination.

Applicants or interested parties may call a ‘conference’ following a draft determination which is an opportunity for applicants and interested parties to make oral submissions to the ACCC about the draft decision.

The ACCC will generally release its final decision (‘determination’) 5-6 months after receiving an application.

Further information about the applications for authorisation is available on the authorisations register: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank & Ors – Authorisation – A91546 & A91547

Another Bank Wants To Outplay Apple Pay

According to Computerworld, Heritage Bank has endorsed an application by some of the nation’s biggest banks lodged with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that seeks the right to form a cartel to collectively negotiate with, and engage in a boycott of, mobile wallet providers including Apple, Google and Samsung.

The Toowoomba-headquartered mutual bank is the biggest issuer of prepaid cards in Australia.

Last month the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank submitted the application to Australia’s competition watchdog.

In its submission to the ACCC Heritage argued that the restrictions imposed by Apple on third-party mobile payment apps for the iPhone reduce competition. Apple does not allow services other than its own Apple Pay offering to use the iPhone’s Near Field Communication antenna for contactless transactions.

In the ACCC application the banks indicate that one of the issues they would seek to collectively bargain over is access to the iPhone’s NFC capabilities. For its part, Apple has argued opening up access to NFC would undermine the security of mobile payments on the iPhone.

So far, in Australia only American Express and ANZ customers are able to use Apple Pay after the two companies struck agreements with the iPhone maker, Heritage Bank’s submission notes.

“Those with NFC enabled Android phones can choose from a broad range of issuers who support mobile payments,” Heritage argues. “iPhone users are consequently disadvantaged by the lack of access provided by Apple to issuers who offer their customers the option of a mobile payment wallet other than Apple Pay.”

Heritage adds that currently the industry “is not able to develop and enact agreed Australian standards relating to the safety, security and stability of mobile payments systems for which issuers, not Third Party Wallet Providers, primarily hold the risk.”

Finally, the submission adds, “Fees and other charges levied by Third Party Wallet Providers on issuers may not be able to be passed through to users of the service. This reduces competition since the decision to pass fees to customers of issuers (or not) and the level of those fees may not be negotiable when contracting with Third Party Wallet Providers who control mobile devices.”

EFTPOS provider Tyro has also indicated it backs the banks’ application.

“It is in the Australian public interest to maintain choice for consumers, merchants and banks as to mobile wallet solutions and the applications that they enable,” a submission from the company argues.

“While Apple allows third parties to connect free of charge via Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and other network protocols to its phone product range, it does not do so for NFC.

“Eliminating third party access to the Apple NFC function is particularly effective in stifling innovation and competition, because it is the only available and highly secure connectivity option that is ubiquitously available across the entire card payment infrastructure and terminal fleet.”

ANZ and Amex the winners in Australia’s banks’ fight with Apple over payment apps

However, South Australia’s Small Business Commissioner, John Chapman, expressed a different opinion: “In my view, this is simply a case whereby powerful banks are simply not used to having to accede to another, more powerful organisation — Apple — a global company that has the smarts and the resources to be able to simply ignore the banks’ demands.”

Mobile Wallet Users Trend Younger, Wealthier

According to eMarkerter, many internet users would like to use their mobile wallets as boarding passes, concert tickets—even ID cards.

Millennial internet users in the UK and the US are more likely to have used a mobile wallet in the past 3 months than Gen Xers or baby boomers, a June 2016 survey by Urban Airship found. Nearly 70% of internet users ages 18 to 34 had used a mobile wallet in the three months leading up to polling.

About half of Gen Xers (ages 35 to 54) said they had used a mobile wallet, while close to 30% of baby boomers and seniors (ages 55 and older) said the same.

Household income also factored in greatly to whether or not internet users had used a mobile wallet recently. For households where income was less than $60,000, usage was just under 40%. But households making $60,000 or more used it far more frequently—over 60% of users had done so in the past 3 months.

And internet users overwhelmingly use mobile wallets for two features: loyalty rewards and coupons.

Sixty percent of those surveyed had used loyalty features, and another 53% had used coupons. No other feature comes close to those figures. However, there are other features users would like to employ.

More than half (55%), for example, would like to use a boarding pass feature of a mobile wallet. About half of respondents would like to use their mobile wallet as an event ticket. Users truly want a mobile wallet: Almost 55% want to use theirs as an ID card. So while mobile wallets are right now most often used for good economic deals, many internet users in the UK and the US are looking to swap out their physical wallets altogether.

An April 2016 survey by Citi Cards, however, reported that only 21% of internet users in the US were at least somewhat likely to start using a mobile payment app, so the mobile wallet revolution may not be here just yet.

Apple rejects banks’ ploy for access to iPhone NFC capabilities

From Computerworld.

Apple says it “strongly urges” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to reject an application from three of the four major banks that would see them able to band together in order to negotiate access to the company’s digital wallet system.

Last month the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac, as well as Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, applied to the ACCC for the right to engage in collective negotiations over, and potentially boycott, third-party digital wallets including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

One bugbear of the banks outlined in their application is the refusal of Apple to open up access to the iPhone’s NFC antenna in order for third party iOS applications to be used for contactless payments.

So far ANZ is the only one of Australia’s big four banks to strike a deal to offer Apple Pay to its customers. “Apple has struggled to negotiate agreements with the Australian Banks and only recently signed an agreement with ANZ,” Apple said in a response lodged with the ACCC that was first noted by the AFR.

The other banks “based on their limited understanding of the offering… perceive Apple Pay as a competitive threat”, Apple argued.

The goal of the banks banding together “is to force Apple and other third party providers to accept their terms, allow them to charge consumers that choose to use Apple Pay, and force Apple to undermine the security of its mobile payment service by opening access to the NFC antenna, placing at risk the consumer experience of a simple, secure, and private way to make payments in store, within applications or on the web.”

Apple said it could not identify any public benefits that could arise from the banks being authorised to engage in a collective boycott.

The banks’ application to the ACCC notes: “Some issuers in other countries have expressed concern that Apple has not allowed other mobile payment apps to use the iPhone’s NFC payment functionality…”

“Providing simple access to the NFC antenna by banking applications would fundamentally diminish the high level of security Apple aims to have on our devices,” Apple argued in response.

Will Internet Users Start Using Mobile Payment Apps Anytime Soon?

From Emarketer.

Mobile payment apps have been around for a while, but its seems people aren’t rushing to use them anytime soon, according to April 2016 research. In fact, more than three-quarters of US internet users said they are very or somewhat unlikely to start using a mobile payment app within the next 12 months.

The likelihood of respondents using a mobile payment app soon was low, data from Citi Cards uncovered. Just 21% of internet users said they were likely to start using one in the next year.

However, separate research from Retale revealed that consumers may in fact be warming to mobile payments. Internet users surveyed in 2015 said that retailers should offer mobile payments in-store, and many were interested in using mobile payments to make an in-store purchase during the holiday season.

Furthermore, eMarketer estimates that proximity mobile payments in the US will ramp up aggressively this year. Transaction value will triple in 2016 due to a growing user base, broader merchant acceptance and the greater frequency of consumers using their phones to make point-of-sale payments on medium- and high-priced products.