New CommBank app goes contactless
Commonwealth Bank customers will soon be able to make contactless payments with their mobile phones. Enhancements to the CommBank app, which will be available over the next few months, will include a near field communication capability called PayTag.PayTag is a sticker that users attach to their iPhone or Android which "integrates" with their banking app. Users can turn PayTag on and off, and they can choose the Commonwealth Bank account they wish to use to make payments.The device will work on any point of sale terminal that accepts contactless cards. The usual A$100 maximum limit on purchases applies.Coles launched a trial of a similar device this week, for use with a Coles MasterCard account.Commonwealth Bank's executive general manager of cards and payments, Angus Sullivan, said there had been "substantial" take-up of contactless payments in Australia over the past year.Sullivan said the bank was also working on an "embedded NFC solution".Other enhancements to CommBank's app include the incorporation of Kaching features, which allow a user make a payment to anyone who has a mobile phone number or an email address (payees do not need to be CBA customers).Users will also be able to make BPay payments by scanning QR codes.Commonwealth Bank's executive general manager of digital channels, Lisa Frazier, said the bank has 1.9 million active mobile app users - an increase of 22 per cent over 12 months.Frazier said: "At the end of 2010, 88 per cent of people used a desktop computer to log in for an online banking session. Today, 56 per cent of log-ins are from mobiles."