Apple's contactless payment platform Apple Pay is slowly yet surely gaining a stronger footing in the land down under as it nabs ING Direct and Macquarie Bank. These financial institutions are officially joing ANZ, American Express and along a number of smaller banks.
CNET has added that Australia's three quarters of the "big four" banks — Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac — are all chasing iPhone's NFC feature so they could use their own contactless payment platforms. Previously, the ACCC has denied the banks' right to collectively bargain with Apple which effectively slows their efforts to tap on iPhone's Apple Pay feature.
Meanwhile, Apple's continued triumph on Apple Pay in Australia is considered to be a significant win for the Cupertino-based firm. It's been lobbying for these banks for quite some time and took it a bit longer than expected to win these banks to support its payment platform. In contrast, Apple Pay's infiltration to U.S. is easier as the country has more mature contactless payment ecosystem.
In related news, Apple Pay may soon be reaching Germany and Italy in its effort to widen its reach globally. As cited by 9To5Mac via Polish website iMagazine, the contactless payment system has been hinted to come in these European countries through its website. Moreover, this hasn't been the first time the payment service was hinted to debut in Germany. In October 2015, Germany's Apple website unintentionally housed a pair of German-language documents that eclipsed that Apple may very well be introducing the payment scheme in the country.
On the other hand, the documents appertaining to Apple's plan to introduce Apple in Germany have since been removed. However, a pair of similar documents have been discovered with Italy officially joining the purported launch. As per iMagazine, this new "About Apple Pay" page is both available and German and Italian languages with their respective cities serving as the background.
