Missing NFC in iPhone 5 surprised NAB

10.10.2012
The Apple iPhone 5's lack of near-field communication (NFC) technology surprised NAB and other banks, according to NAB's technology head of strategy and innovation, Denis Curran. It's an example of why banks must be agile with their IT strategy in an age of increasing digitisation, he said this morning at the Information & Data World Symposium in Sydney.

"We all thought that the Apple iPhone 5 would come out with NFC," Curran said. NFC is the technology used in many Android phones to support Google Wallet and other mobile payment applications. "What will that do to adoption of NFC in Australia for mobile? How do we adapt our strategies to them?"

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NAB previously had to adapt its digital strategy when the Global Financial Crisis hit, Curran said. The Ubank platform for deposits was originally supposed to be targeted at the lending market, he said. "But the GFC intervened in that. Lending was going to be completely unsuccessful and we switched proposition ... very quickly. It's [that] sort of responsiveness you have to build into the DNA of the business."

Change is difficult, especially for a 150-year old institution like the NAB and in an industry like banking that dates back to the 1400s, Curran said. However, banks must adapt to today's "information industry" to reduce the "risk of substitutes, new entrants" and competition from rival financial institutions, he said. Consumers and businesses are forcing the change --- money, transactions and shopping are increasingly becoming more digital, and more and more people are moving online for social networks and knowledge, he said.

Curran highlighted competition in the payments area, with NAB watching "the PayPals of the world," he said. Also, the Apple App Store "transacts more payments than just about anybody in the world", and Curran is paying attention to what the company does with its Passbook app, he said.