Westpac to run internal NFC trial

By Christopher Brown • nfcworld.com • 18 May 2011, 10:55

Westpac has become the latest of Australia's big four banks to trial contactless mobile phone payment technology.

The bank intends to conduct an internal NFC trial later this month, iTnews reports. Employees will be supplied with mobile contactless stickers that attach to their phones and can be processed using existing contactless merchant terminals.

The iTnews article also provides some initial feedback on the Visa/ANZ Bank NFC trial, which began in March, as well as comments from mobile network operator Telstra's national general manager of financial services:

Sam Qubrosi, ANZ's head of product management and unsecured lending, said participants had responded positively to the four-week trial.

"It's still early days as we've just completed the trial and are still analysing all the data, but this is an extremely exciting piece of innovative technology," he said. "We're looking forward to seeing how we can implement it for our customers in the future."

According to Telstra's national general manager of financial services, Rocky Scopelliti, it would be up to the banks to bring mobile phone payment technology to Australia.

Speaking with iTnews in advance of the Payments Australia conference in July, Scopelliti was confident that "the Australian market is ready to adopt mobile NFC, SIM-based services".

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