More than a decade since it launched, Apple Pay continues to irk RBC CEO David McKay. At a recent event in Davos, McKay said limited access to Apple’s payments technology was creating a “barrier” for banks trying to compete with tech giants.

McKay’s complaints aren’t new. Regulators around the world have spent years probing Apple Pay, which launched in 2014 and uses the iPhone’s near-field communication (NFC) chip to wirelessly transmit payment details. In July 2024, a European Union antitrust probe forced Apple to make its NFC payments technology freely available to rival mobile wallets in the EU for 10 years.

In Canada, however, Apple’s policy only allows third-party developers to access the NFC system if they sign commercial agreements and pay fees to Apple, which ultimately retains control over how its technology is used.

None of Canada’s Big Six currently have tap-to-pay features in their iPhone apps, or operate their own digital wallets. Craig Attiwill, CEO of Victoria, B.C.-based fintech startup Peloton Technologies, said Apple’s fees likely discourage banks from building rival wallets. He said banks probably don’t feel it is fair that they should pay Apple a fee to process payments on its devices.

When asked if NFC access represents a barrier to competition, BMO, Scotiabank and CIBC referred questions back to the Canadian Bankers Association. Association spokesperson Nathalie Bergeron said that Canada “needs a broader national dialogue on innovation in financial services.” TD and National Bank did not respond to requests for comment, while RBC declined to comment.

An Apple spokesperson did not respond when asked about fees charged to third-parties in Canada. Previous reports show the company charged card issuers an up to 0.15 per cent fee on credit transactions and a flat 0.5 cent fee on debit transactions processed through Apple Pay.

The Canadian mobile wallet and payments market, valued at roughly US$1.39 billion in 2024, is projected to reach about US$20.48 billion by 2030, according to research firm MarkNtel Advisors. Bank of Canada data shows that among Canadians who pay with their phones, nearly 90 per cent use Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

Around 2014, several banks, including RBC, Scotiabank and TD Bank, launched their own mobile wallets on Apple and Android devices. Almost all of these apps were ditched, with TD citing “growing popularity of other digital wallets” as a reason for the shutdown in 2022. Canadian banks got “innovated out of the space,” said Christie Christelis, president of market research company Technology Strategies International.

Other, more recent efforts to take on Apple Pay and Google Pay have also struggled. Last November, Interac launched Konek, a digital wallet that supports cards from five of the big Canadian banks, but can only be used to pay at partnering retailers in Canada. So far, the biggest retailer involved appears to be Staples.

Attiwill said Konek doesn’t offer anything new and is “not positioned to replace Apple Pay or Apple Wallet.”

Lauren Mostowyk, a spokesperson for Interac, said that Konek also faces limited access to NFC, calling it a barrier to entry. She added that Interac had noted the issue in its recent pre-budget submission to the federal government. Interac will soon add new features to Konek, she said, including a potential mobile wallet.

In Davos, McKay said that Canadian banks are currently lobbying the Competition Bureau and other government bodies for broader access to NFC payment systems on Apple devices.

Ottawa has paid attention to the issue in the past. In July 2024, following the EU’s Apple Pay antitrust win, then-industry minister François-Philippe Champagne urged the Competition Bureau to monitor the digital wallet market and to address Apple and Google’s dominance. Bureau spokesperson Sarah Brown said that she could not confirm the existence of an investigation.

“The Competition Bureau needs to get in there and they need to start the discussion so they can determine what a reasonable fee is for somebody to come into this market so that innovation can thrive,” Attiwill said.

Apple Pay has faced similar criticism in other countries. Earlier this month, Australia’s bank lobby group accused the company of imposing Apple Pay fees that fall largely outside their central bank’s regulatory oversight. Australian banks said they shoulder billions of dollars in costs while U.S. tech platforms capture the profits.

McKay also said at Davos that the arrival of open banking makes equal access to hardware capabilities will become “absolutely critical.” 

Daniel Eberhard, CEO of Vancouver-based fintech Koho, said it was “deeply ironic” that Canada’s big banks take issue with Apple’s control over its own hardware. “For a long time, these guys have been very protectionist in their market structures,” he added. “And it’s not like they [haven’t] fought to keep Canada a very heavily centralized oligopoly.”