18 October 2012 6:44am

One of the main battlegrounds for banks in the coming 12 months will be the digital relationship they are able to foster with customers – and the payment options available will be key to that relationship.

Speaking at CeBIT's Future of Payments conference in Sydney yesterday, Travis Tyler, head of e-channels for Westpac's St George brand, claimed that in spite of alternative payments channels emerging it would be the banks which continued to dominate payments.

He said that companies like Apple, which has established a closed loop payment system through iTunes, would be...