New Laws in Australia for Apple, Google, WeChat Digital Wallets

The Federal Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that payments made via digital wallets for in-person transactions grew to eight percent in 2019, a six percent gain since 2016.

The government in Australia is going to introduce new, much more tighter laws that are meant to control and regulate giant Digital Wallets service providers like Google, Alphabet and Apple. Frydenberg, a government treasurer, was quoted saying that they’re going to use a government-commissioned report back to decide whether payment systems within the country have advanced to match the present technological advancement and demands of the buyer. Global Digital Wallet service providers like Chinese WeChat Pay, Global Google Pay, and Global Apple Pay but currently not considered as payment systems yet, not under the regulatory system of the Australia.

The governmental treasurer was further quoted saying that if action isn’t urgently taken to control this framework, then it might mean that the long run of digital payments will remain within the hands of geographical area, which is critical for the country’s economic infrastructure.

At the beginning of the month, The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) advised global financial watchdogs to think about and check out to manage the influence wielded by the massive tech companies, not forgetting the massive amounts of knowledge at their disposal. Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba, and other players in their league are particularly known to be having plenty of knowledge at their disposal.

The Australian authority report recommends the government be allowed to classify these tech companies as a payment service providers and also clarify the regulation of digital wallets. The report also recommended that the government and industry should collaborate to come back up with an efficient and safe strategic plan for the digigal payment services. Additionally thereto, one integrated licensing system of payment should be adopted.

The bank of Australia, currently mandated with deciding who falls under the payment services provider category, revealed that payments made via digital wallets for in-person transactions grew to eight in 2019, a 6% gain since 2016. Estimates by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia indicate that transactions made through digital wallets increased by two occasions within the year to March reaching $2.1 billion.

The banking system is requesting regulators to act fast and address issues associated with competition, and also consider the protection impacts surrounding the utilization of digital wallets to customers. Regulating digital wallets by the govt. goes an additional mile to protect regular users against cybercrime cases and other financial-related crimes. Additionally, personal data held by a number of these big tech companies is also used maliciously and expose people to financial crimes