Two Australian banks, Macquarie and ING Australia, announced Tuesday (Feb. 21) that they are offering their customers Apple Pay.
In the case of Macquarie, the company said in a press release that the launch of Apple Pay is the next step in the bank’s move to support digital banking solutions for its customers.
“With more Australians using their mobile phones for banking, it’s an obvious next step that customers would want to turn their iPhone into their wallet,” said Ben Perham, head of personal banking for Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services Group, in the release. “Paying with your iPhone is an awesome customer experience, and we think our customers are going to love being able to leave their wallet at home. In building our own digital banking offering, we looked to set a new bar with a highly personalized and intuitive customer experience. Apple Pay is part of our integrated approach to continuing to make our customer’s banking secure, fast and convenient.”
Macquarie said customers will continue to get the same rewards and benefits from their existing cards. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6 (and later) and Apple Watch.
For ING Australia, the bank said it made the move to start supporting Apple Pay because of demand on the part of its customer base.
“Approximately 70 percent of our Orange Everyday customers who use our app connect with us through Apple devices, and they’ve been asking us for Apple Pay. We’re delighted to be able to deliver,” said John Arnott, executive director, customer, in an announcement.
ING Australia said that, in addition to the one-touch ease of paying for things with Apple Pay, the bank liked the fact that, with Apple Pay, the credit or debit card numbers are not stored on the devices or on Apple servers. Apple instead uses a unique Device Account Number that is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on the user’s device.