Four Australian banks have opted to jettison a proposed three-year boycott of Apple Pay and, in effect, start over. Their new idea: an 18-month boycott to persuade Apple to fold over its limits on access to the NFC antenna on the iPhone.The second submission by four banks to the ACCC, submitted yesterday, is in essence a new approach, even if the pitch is to some degree a pared back version of a proposal floated by banks back in July.Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank are seeking authorisation via the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to engage in limited collective negotiations.Eight months ago the banks relied on three pillars to rationalise authorisation for a three-year boycott.One related to security of payments on an iPhone, a topic that faded within months as Apple conceded to pressure in other markets to modify its stance. A second was the option to pass-through fees, a concern also now dropped by banks in order to focus their stoush with Apple on one narrow facet of the company's practice.This third, and still animated, concern of banks is the company's staunch refusal to allow any application other than its own Apple Pay to access the NFC antenna.The core of the matters now in dispute are the additional costs, to banks, of making their banking apps and wallets work in smooth manner on the iPhone, along with devising an easy customer experience within each bank's own apps. Their angst of this topic is framed around public benefits of enabling many outside developers, such as retailers, to exploit this mechanism.All of the four banks assure they "will participate in Apple Pay as a necessary condition of access to the iPhone's NFC function" if the ACCC clears the way for any collective negotiation with Apple."The applicants are incentivised and committed to starting and ending negotiations quickly," they recite in their ACCC submission."The commercial reality is that the collective negotiation will not last for three years."Each banks is also at liberty to leave the collective negotiation at any time without penalty.Three years, once a cornerstone of the banks' effort to confront Apple, is a period the four banks modified."The applicants consider that it is better (and in the public interest) to have an opportunity to meaningfully sit at the table and negotiate within a shorter authorisation term than not to have that opportunity at all. "In the circumstances, the applicants are willing to reduce the term of authorisation to 18 months."