Three of Australia’s largest banks have partnered to build a mobile wallet and payment system for smartphones, in their continued fight against mobile payments rival Apple
That’s the Commonwealth, Westpac and NAB. Otherwise known as the “cry-baby three” who lost their fight with the ACCC to force Apple to grant them access to it’s NFC tech in the iPhone.
The app, which is available in trial at the moment at beem.com.au, appears to be a very weak copy of the popular, American based, Venmo.
While the banks are hoping many will jump on board and see the somewhat alternate method it provides using a QR based system instead of NFC, the proof will be in its small business adoption. That’s going to be tough considering the heavy penetration of NFC based EFTPOS terminals already in the market.
The reality of the situation, summed up perfectly by James Croft…
https://twitter.com/jamescroft/status/925225744065748992
Source: Big three Aussie banks build Apple Pay rival – Finance – iTnews