Only one bank of the four largest in Australia remained to support payments through Apple Pay. Finally, the news is that soon it will be one more. Its users will be able to use the Apple payment platform that has been so successfully implemented in other countries. Westpac, Australia's second-largest bank, has stated that it will soon begin rolling out Apple Pay support.
Such a delay may be due to the dispute that these large banks had with Apple itself. They asked the American company to have access to the NFC hardware of the iPhone. The banks requested that Apple open up access to NFC technology so that they could run their own payment platforms, but Apple denied those requests.
Westpac, the last major bank to accept Apple Pay in Australia
Westpac has stated through an official statement that Apple Pay will now be available, first in its regional brands. St George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne whose customers have an eligible Visa debit or credit card will be first. This decision to implement the payment platform first in its regional brands is made so that the bank itself can update its technology before a national launch.
In the words of the CEO of consumer banking, David Lindberg: "We want to assure Westpac customers that we are working to bring them Apple Pay as quickly as possible, while rolling out the technology across our different banking platforms."
It will not be until well into 2020 that Westpac bank customers can make use of this technologySince it was established in Spain, I personally can tell you that I don't know where I have the physical card from my bank.
If you are interested in knowing all the banks that currently support Apple Pay, you only have to access the page that has Apple enabled for these purposes.