Apple has bypassed banks unwilling to give up their card fees, by launching Apple Pay with American Express in Australia and a host of other countries.
Amex global head of mobile products and payments Tony Prentice said its customers in Australia and Canada will be able to use Apple Pay for transactions on iPhones, Apple Watch and iPads this year, and in Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong in 2016. 
"We believe it is critical to be on the forefront of seamless and innovative payment solutions ..." he said in a statement.
Some banks in Australia now offer contactless payments on Android mobiles, but Apple has struggled to get agreement with banks to launch via Visa and MasterCard networks outside the United States and Britain.
Even in the US, the true number of people using Apple Pay is estimated to be low. This is in part because contactless-payments uptake is much lower there than in many other countries.
Unlike Google and other mobile wallet providers, the tech giant wants a cut of the fees the card schemes pay to the banks, but these payments - known as interchange fees - which amount to about $2 billion annually for all Australian banks - are much lower in Australia and Europe than in the US.
In   August, Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ian Narev told Fairfax Media that Apple would find it hard to convince banks to give up revenue in return for being able to offer Apple Pay.
He said CBA has already offered the same functionality as Apple Pay through its app - for users of Android phones - for two years, so it was difficult for Apple to argue it is providing much value. In the US, Apple Pay was innovative because tap-and-go was not a feature of that market.
A spokesman for CBA said on Wednesday: "Apple Pay is an interesting proposition and on its arrival in Australia we'll evaluate the best payments solution for our customers," he said.
A Westpac spokesman said it provides contactless cards and payments on Samsung Android phones via NFC. "It is not appropriate to comment on any discussions we may have had with Apple." Other major banks privately said talks were ongoing with Apple. But one said the Amex deal represented a small part of the credit card transactions in Australia and believed it would put minimal extra pressure on banks to to do a deal.
Bank consultant Grant Halverson, of Mclean Roche, said banks own most of the payment terminals in Australia and could easily frustrate any upgrades to these needed to accept Apple Pay. Banks would feel no extra pressure to do a deal with Apple, he said.