The National Australia Bank will look to take on US fintech companies like Square by launching a phone-based contactless payment product designed to help small merchants and individual “side businesses” receive payments from customers.
The business-focused lender will launch its new offering, Easy Tap, which it claims will allow users to accept contactless payments when customers tap their card or phone on an Android phone or tablet.
Head of Banking at NAB Andrew Irvine has announced Easy Tap, a mobile payment technology for the first time for a major Australian bank.
“This is perfect for Australians with a side hustle,” said Andrew Irvine, head of business banking at NAB. “Think of the local farmers market, coffee carts, and mobile hairdressers who don’t want to stick around a payment station or dongle and who are looking for instant insight into how their business is doing.”
This move will put NAB against PayPal and Block, Inc. , whose affiliates Zeller and Square provide contactless payment solutions. The difference, Irvine said, is that Easy Tap won’t require an additional purchase of a dongle or payment terminal.
There will be no upfront fees for Easy Tap, as it charges customers a flat transaction fee of 1.4 percent. Other competitors, such as Zeller, which is operated by PayPal, charge between 1.4 and 1.7 percent depending on the type of transaction, while Square, which is operated by Block, Inc. They charge between 1.6 to 2.2 percent.
The downside of a product without a dongle or terminal is that Easy Tap will only be available to customers with an Android phone. Apple, which has built its brand on privacy, doesn’t give third parties access to its software — so iPhone users hoping for technology will have to stick with the tech giant to launch its own version.
NAB isn’t the only bank to throw its hat into the ring of contactless payment solutions: Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, launched a similar product in Germany on Wednesday with commercial acquirer Fiserv. The product, known as Vert, offers the typical peripherals offered by Square and Zeller, as well as an app that works similarly to NAB’s Easy Tap.
Easy Tap comes as Australia lowers itself into a cashless society. According to the Reserve Bank, about 75 per cent of card payments in Australia were made with a debit card between 2021 and 2022, with the share of debit and credit card transactions via mobile wallets doubling between 2020 and 2022.
Last year, the average Australian made 650 electronic transactions, compared to 300 a decade ago, and about 75 per cent of those transactions used debit and credit cards, the most popular retail payment method in Australia.
Originally published at Melbourne News Vine
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