Australian Government Approaches Regulation Countdown for Apple Pay and Google Pay

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Major foreign media reported on the 30th (local time) that the Australian government is considering introducing new legislation to regulate the easy payment services of global big tech companies such as Google and Apple.

Josh Frydenberg, Australian Treasurer, stated, "We are carefully examining whether the current digital payment systems are responding to technological advancements and changes in consumer demand."

Minister Frydenberg warned, "If we do not reform the digital payment systems, which currently constitute a significant part of our economic infrastructure, Silicon Valley companies will monopolize our market in the future."

Global platform companies providing easy payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and China's WeChat Pay are not registered as payment service providers and therefore are not subject to regulation under current laws.

The payment services they provide include online or in-app payments, in-store payments (offline payments), and remittance services.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the share of digital payments in Australia accounted for 8% of card face-to-face transactions (as of 2019), a significant increase compared to 2% in 2016.

Earlier this month, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) urged financial supervisory bodies to identify and control the vast financial data controlled by big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.