Unfortunately over in Australia, things are a little different. The service has officially launched in the country, but some of the country’s major banks are resisting the service and had previously requested the country’s antitrust regulator to allow them to negotiate with Apple collectively. However it seems that their request has been denied.
According to a preliminary decision made by the antitrust regulators, they have denied the banks’ request to negotiate as a collective. However given that the decision was “finely balanced”, it is possible that the banks could sway them come March when the final decision is expected to be handed down.
So far ANZ is the only major bank out of the four major banks in Australia to have adopted the platform. For those who aren’t ANZ’s customers, it seems that unless Apple and the banks can come to an agreement, you’ll just have to keep waiting a little bit longer.