Some of Australia's leading financial instituions have joined forces in an attempt to challenge Apple's resistance to letting them offer their own payment services on Apple devices that contain NFC technology.

Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and Bendingo haved filed an application with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission as they seek permission to negotiate with Apple about the ability to offer mobile-payment services without violating anti-competition regulations, according to multiple news sources.

Despite longstanding rumors about Apple allowing access to the NFC chip inside some of its products, the company so far has resisted. This is the first such public attempt to change that restriction.

Most Austrailian banks have resisted Apply Pay because they do not wish to share any revenue from such transactions.

Apple Pay debuted in Austrailia in November but has been limited to American Express users.

ANZ is the only Australian bank working with Apple Pay when it signed an agreement in April.