Apple, Google, Digital Wallets May Face New Regulation Laws in Australia

The Australian authorities is contemplating new legal guidelines that may tighten the regulation of digital fee companies by tech giants similar to Apple and Alphabet’s Google.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg mentioned he would “carefully consider” that and different suggestions from a government-commissioned report into whether or not the funds system had stored tempo with advances in expertise and modifications in client demand.

Services similar to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and China’s WeChat Pay, which have grown quickly lately, are usually not presently designated as fee techniques, placing them exterior the regulatory system.

“Ultimately, if we do nothing to reform the current framework, it will be Silicon Valley alone that determines the future of our payments system, a critical piece of our economic infrastructure,” Frydenberg mentioned in an opinion piece published within the Australian Financial Review newspaper.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) earlier this month referred to as for world monetary watchdogs to urgently familiarize yourself with the rising affect of ‘Big Tech’, and the large quantities of knowledge managed by teams similar to Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba.

The Australian report really helpful the federal government be given the facility to designate tech corporations as fee suppliers, clarifying the regulatory standing of digital wallets.

It additionally really helpful the federal government and trade collectively set up a strategic plan for the broader funds ecosystem and {that a} single, built-in licensing framework for fee techniques be developed.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which is presently answerable for designating who’s a fee companies supplier, reported that funds via digital wallets had grown to eight % of in-person card transactions in 2019, up from 2 % in 2016.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which has estimated digital pockets transactions greater than doubled within the yr to March to AUD 2.1 billion (roughly Rs. 11,270 crores), has urged regulators to handle “competition issues” and take into account the security implications of their use.

© Thomson Reuters 2021