The Reserve Bank should move to regulate the fast-growing “digital wallet” market, according to the Eftpos group, which describes itself as Australia’s debit-card network, accounting for more than two billion transactions a year.
Eftpos claims that most digital wallets do not allow customers to make payments via cheque or savings bank accounts.
The Commonwealth Bank, for instance, only offers payments via Mastercard debit or credit services. However in February Eftpos revealed that it expanded use of Google Pay to include St George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA, allowing customers of those banks to access cheque and savings phones from their mobiles, providing benefits such as the ability to get cash out at a checkout.
Still Eftpos’s chief executive Stephen Benton has recently claimed that there is a real risk that many Eftpos users could be locked out of some online payment systems where their card details are held.
He told Nine media that it is now time for Reserve Bank regulation to ensure choice of payment options when debit cards are moved to digital wallets.
