Macquarie Group and ING Direct Joining Apple Pay
Macquarie Group and ING Direct have announced that they are joining the Apple Pay party.
With the list of banks slowly growing (found here), this creates greater accessibility for users to actually be able to pay with their Devices rather than their physical cards.
ING Direct and Macquarie are well-known brand names and have national reach, giving them the edge over rivals like Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and Bank of Queensland in attracting customers.
Larger banks control about 80 percent of Australia’s mortgage market, and regulators are likely to welcome greater competition from the smaller banks with mobile banking platforms.
ING Direct and Macquarie, which each have less than 3 percent retail market share, both lack physical branch networks. This gives them a cost advantage over the Big Four, but means they rely on digital channels and word of mouth to attract business.
Macquarie Bank head of personal banking Ben Perham said the introduction of Apple Pay, allowing customers to make payments with iPhones and Apple Watches, would further enhance the bank’s digital offering.
Soon it won’t be long before everyone can pay just by presenting their phone or watch at the register!
