Shopping Expected To Reach Record Levels

PAYMARK EFTPOS
Christmas Electronic Transaction Report

21 December 2006

Shopping Expected To Reach Record Levels

Electronic and online transaction statistics build in lead up to Christmas

The weekend prior to Christmas Day promises to be a busy one for consumers and retailers alike, according to electronic transaction network provider Paymark.

Volumes have been steady with more than two million electronic transactions processed a day by Paymark since December 12th. Transactions volumes reached a peak of 2.77 million transactions on Wednesday 20th, close to the highest volume ever.

New Zealanders have carried out nearly 23 million electronic transactions between December 12th and 20th, worth $1.3 billion. This represents a seven percent increase in volume on the equivalent period in 2005 (December 11-20).

Simon Tong, Chief Executive Officer, Paymark, says it appears consumers are saving up for a final burst of shopping over the two full weekend days before Christmas this year.

“It has been an interesting build up to the festive season so far, with a surge in activity in early December, followed by a steady period over the last week. We can see from the transaction volumes that the momentum is clearly building up to the weekend, and we believe we will see record levels of transactions on Saturday and Sunday.

“There are a number of key milestones that we expect to reach over the weekend, including breaking the 100 transaction per second barrier and processing over three million transactions in a day. We have already reached as high as 86 transactions per second through the week, so reaching the century mark looks likely. Even at that level we will only be utilising around one third of Paymark’s total processing capacity.”

The Paymark network accounts for around 80 percent of all electronic transactions (debit, credit, online) in New Zealand.

ENDS

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