Apple spent $1.24 million in the first quarter of 2015 on lobbying legislators on a range of topics, including mobile payments, said Bloomberg. The figure represents a 16 per cent increase over the same period last year.

The figure, which was disclosed in the company’s own lobbying report, covers a whole range of activities. In fact, they read like a roll call of potential Apple concerns. Included on the list are corporate tax reform, spectrum policy, smartphone theft prevention and related issues, the open internet, green technology, regulation of mobile medical apps and consumer privacy.

Amidst the other entries is “issues related to mobile payments”, although no further detail is provided.

President Barack Obama announced in February that Apple Pay will be enabled for users of federal-payment cards, including social security and veterans’ benefits that are paid out via debit cards – the kind of federal initiative that benefits private companies – the Bloomberg report points out.

However, Apple still lags rivals in its lobbying spend. For example, Google spent $5.47 million in the first quarter of 2015, although the search giant’s lobbying report makes no mention of Google Wallet, a rival to Apple Pay.