Australia’s debit network adds Android Pay

Australia has a high ratio of consumers using contactless payment cards, while mobile payment adoption has lagged because of some large banks’ aversion to supporting Apple Pay and slower uptake in the region for Android Pay.

But mobile payments are getting a boost in the region, with Android Pay now available to millions more users, with the rollout of support for mobile payments via eftpos, Australia’s domestic debit network, according to a Tuesday press release from U.K.-based Rambus, which supplied tokenization technology for host card emulation.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Nine financial institutions are initially supporting Android Pay for eftpos, which accounts for more than 40 million debit cards in the region, Rambus noted in the release.

ANZ, one of the banks supporting Android Pay via eftpos, last month was the first in the region to announce Apple Pay support for eftpos cardholders, enabling consumers to avoid the surcharges some merchants charge for credit card transactions.

Consumers must download Android Pay and load an eftpos card to the wallet to use the service, which will create a payment token to protect card data, according to the release.

“We are thrilled to be one of the first domestic networks in the world to offer tokenization services and support Android Pay,” said Paul Jennings, acting CEO of Australia’s eftpos, in the release. “This will bring the convenience of secure, in-store mobile payments to many Australians for the first time.”

More than 800,000 merchant terminals in Australia have contactless support, the release noted.