Australian banks aren’t on board with Apple Pay yet as they’re not willing to give give Apple a slice of the US$2 billion a year they earn in interchange fees, which are paid by merchants for use of payments infrastructure, according to The Sydney Morning Herald (http://tinyurl.com/q8j8xnt).
In the United States, Apple is believed to earn about 15¢ on every $100 of transactions. It is understood Apple has been asking for the same amount of interchange fee in Australia, says the SMH. The article says that Australia’s big banks won’t agree to this level given that interchange fees in Australia are about half the US level – equivalent to an average of 50¢ $100 of transaction compared with about $1 for $100 of transaction fees in the US.
Apple announced Apple Pay in September 2014, describing it as “a new category of service designed to transform mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay.” It works with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus through a NFC antenna design, a dedicated chip called the Secure Element, and Touch ID.
