Payments made by taping a mobile phone at the checkout have almost tripled since the Commonwealth Bank launched the Apple Pay service, the bank has claimed.
Apple Pay is also used by the ANZ Bank, but has so far been spurned by Westpac and the National Bank, apparently due to he high percentage of the payment demanded by Apple. However some of the smaller banks and credit unions have also adopted Apple Pay.
The growing popularity of tap-and-go payments is one reason for the declining role of cash among Australian consumers, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report. Overall tap and go payments including those using plastic cards have grown 140 percent in the last two years, according to the CBA, though the bank has declined to put a monetary figure on the amount involved.
Not everyone is entirely happy, however. The surge in digital payments is said to be attracting growing scrutiny from the Reserve Bank, which wants to ensure merchants’ costs are not inflated by fees from banks and card schemes as cash declines.
The Reserve also wants to ensure lower-cost schemes such as Eftpos are not locked out.
