Major banks singing in unison on new rules for digital platforms

afr.com:

ANZ, National Australia Bank and Westpac have joined Commonwealth Bank’s calls for global digital platforms to be regulated as payment service providers, pushing back on recent arguments by Apple and Google that they’re merely peripheral players.

A special report on the future of payments, published in The Australian Financial Review on Thursday, found each of the major banks are concerned about an uneven regulatory playing field for payments, and are paranoid that Apple and Google may expand their tentacles into other areas of banking.

The major banks are concerned about an uneven regulatory playing field for payments. Bloomberg

Commonwealth Bank has been leading the charge to get the federal government to regulate Apple under a new payment licensing regime, to be administered by the Reserve Bank, which is currently being drawn up by Treasury. Apple rejects the moves, arguing its Apply Pay digital wallet does nothing more than create a safer way for customers to pay with existing bank-issued cards.

For the first time, all the other major banks have backed CBA, declaring Apple and Google to be participants in the payment system, as smartphones are increasingly used for “tap and go” payments. Apple is charging banks more than $100 million a year in fees to use its iPhones, which lenders say should trigger regulatory oversight.

“If you’re contributing to the cost structure, through some formal mechanism like an additive fee as a percentage per transaction, then you should absolutely be captured,” said Westpac managing director of global transaction services, Jeff Byrne.

“And if you are contributing or detracting from the security of the system, if you are responsible for authentication of transactions, or… for the security