Australia's largest bank finally caves, announces imminent Apple Pay support
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Thursday announced it will finally begin supporting Apple Pay starting in January 2019.
CommBank is the second of the four major banks in Australia to adopt Apple's mobile payments platform after a contentious negotiation period kept the service out of the country for months.
The announcement was made today via CommBank's Twitter account.
Apple Pay is coming for CommBank personal customers January 2019 pic.twitter.com/VHeZWKBoRp
— CommBank (@CommBank) December 14, 2018
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group currently supports Apple Pay, while National Australia Bank and Westpac have not revealed plans for adoption.
There has been much back and forth between Apple and Australia's banks, with the institutions at one point demanding direct access to iPhone's NFC chip to create their own authentication protocol. As part of struggle, Australia's "big-three" banks — Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp —
sought to collectively negotiate for the installation of non-Apple Pay software on iPhone hardware, threatening a boycott.