BANK ON PAYWEAR

NO MORE burying your wallet in the sand — one of Australia’s big four banks will launch a waterproof wearable debit card this year to make buying lunch at the beach far less risky.

Westpac will also collaborate with Australian designers to make its cheap PayWear wristbands more fashionable, and compete with more expensive solutions.

The bank revealed one in every four Australians had lost or had their wallet stolen at the beach, almost half of all women have hidden cash in their bras, and more than one in three men have stuffed cash into their socks.

The basic PayWear Essentials wristbands will launch in December. The silicon wristbands will feature an embedded chip that can make payments at tap-andgo terminals. The bank will initially offer them for free, and charge $5 in future.