Australia's Westpac Bank and contactless payments
Westpac, one of Australia’s big four banks, has recently started testing “contactless mobile phone payment technology.”
Being in Palo Alto, we’ve been exposed to this concept very quickly and early. Bling Nation, a local company, also offers contactless payment in the form of its Bling tag, which is attached to a user’s cell phone. Bling and other NFC companies are facing serious competition in the form of already established payment methods, such as Visa and Mastercard.
They are currently working to encourage vendors to carry NFC sensors instead of, or at least in addition to, the traditional credit card machines.