ANZ records festive spike in mobile wallet transactions

ANZ data show a significant rise in the volume of mobile wallet transactions in December 2017, reaching 3.9 million, up 140% on the previous corresponding period.

The Christmas spike saw ANZ customers make around 23% more transactions using mobile wallets in December compared with the previous three-month average.

The bank also recorded growth in payments driven by wearable devices, with over five thousand payments made using Fitbit Pay & Garmin Pay.

In total, ANZ customers favoured their smartphones and wearables for 4.5% of all transactions, compared with just two per cent for the same time last year.

The bank's chief executive Shayne Elliott has spoken in the past about the potential for mobile wallets to displace plastic cards in tap-and-go friendly Australia.

Speaking to local journalists at the ANZ launch for Android Pay in July 2016, Elliott remarked: "I could see it [mobile payments] absolutely displacing plastic and I'm not talking in 10 years, we're talking in a much shorter period of time than that."