Westpac launches Android Pay
Westpac has launched an Android Pay service and plans to make it available to St George Bank, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA customers next year.Initially the service will only be available to Westpac customers using MasterCard debit and credit cards. It will be extended to customers using Visa and American Express cards next year.Android Pay was launched in Australia in July, when ANZ and more than 20 Cuscal clients started offering the service.Since then Cuscal has connected more of its clients, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank launched a service in August and Bankwest launched earlier this week.Feedback from some financial institutions is that take-up of digital wallets has been slow.The chief executive of People's Choice Credit Union, Steve Laidlaw, reported last month that since it launched Android Pay in July, 1000 of its 440,000 members had taken it up and made 10,000 transactions.Laidlaw described the response as a "slow burn".Teachers Mutual Bank chief executive Steve James said the take-up of Android Pay, which it launched in July, had been a little slower than anticipated, with 1500 members out of 185,000 signing up.