Banks quickly follow ANZ to support Android Pay

Australia's financial institutions have rushed to announce support for Android Pay after ANZ Bank this morning claimed the crown of being the first to market with the mobile payments platform.

Cuscal, Macquarie Bank, MyState and Teachers Mutual Bank were among several smaller banks and credit unions to quickly follow the big-four bank to offer Android Pay to customers. Google announced the planned local arrival of the platform last December.

Payments solution provider Cuscal said its 'Pays' solution would allow 25 financial instutitions to connect their Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards to Android Pay from today.

More will follow in the coming weeks, it said, enabling 2 million Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cardholders to use the platform.

Cuscal's white-labelled mobile banking app, in use by 20 unnamed banks, will also support Android Pay, the firm said. Cuscal's clients include Teachers Mutual Bank and MyState, which have both said they will support the platform.

Similarly, Macquarie Bank said from today its credit cardholders would be able to make payments with Android Pay. Debit cardholders will follow in the coming weeks, Macquarie said.

When Google unveiled its plans to bring Android Pay to market last December, Westpac, ING Direct, St George, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia and Bendigo Bank all said they had signed up to the platform.

All have been contacted for comment in light of today's announcements.

Westpac said it was "working closely with Google and will be offering Android Pay to our customers later this year, across all brands (Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA)".

ING said it was planning a mid-August launch, and Bendigo Bank said its support for the technology would be "coming soon". 

Google has provided a full list of the 28 banks that will support Android Pay, either from today or imminently.

ANZ Bank's announcement this morning marks the second time it has beaten the other banks to market with a mobile playments platform after winning the race for Apple Pay in April.

The payments platform can be used on smartphones running the KitKat operating system and above, which also feature near-field communications (NFC) capability.