Final opportunity for retailers to avoid disconnection

Media Release

Date: 31-May-11

Final opportunity for retailers to avoid disconnection

With less than 24 hours to go before outdated EFTPOS terminals are disconnected from the Paymark network, CEO Simon Tong is urging merchants to contact Paymark or their terminal providers and schedule an upgrade immediately if they wish to continue processing EFTPOS transactions.

“We have just over 4,000 terminals that are yet to be upgraded. We strongly recommend retailers using these machines make arrangements to upgrade their equipment today to avoid disconnection,” says Simon Tong.

The process will begin with approximately 650 deactivations on June 1, followed by further groups over June/July until all version 5.1 and below terminals have been deactivated.

“The last thing we want to do is stop people trading. We have attempted to contact those who have not upgraded many times, including informing them of the exact week in which their terminal will cease to operate. If you continue to use an old terminal you can expect it to stop working very shortly.

“On the plus side we’ve had over 110,000 terminals upgrade over the past 18 months which is a phenomenal effort by the retail community. Well over 98% of all transactions are now being carried by compliant terminals,” adds Simon Tong.

Paymark advises that the process to reconnect terminals to its network is simple: retailers need to upgrade their terminals. The reconnection process takes only a short time once the new technology is installed.

Retailers who want to schedule an upgrade, or who find themselves disconnected should call their EFTPOS provider, or Paymark on 0800 800 996.

In November 2009, Paymark celebrated a significant business, retail, and economic milestone with the celebration of its 20th birthday. Since its inception in 1989 when three banks came together to form Electronic Transaction Services Limited (now known as Paymark Limited), Paymark has grown to become an integral part of New Zealand’s economic landscape with arguably the best EFTPOS system in the world.
Quick facts:
- By March 1990 volumes through the network exceeded 1 million transactions a month
- In 1994 the company increased its computer processing power to accommodate volumes exceeding 10 million transactions a month
- 28 August 1996, Paymark makes history by installing an off-shore EFTPOS terminal at a general store, Scott Base, Antarctica
- In 1998 Paymark passed another milestone as the 1 billionth EFTPOS transaction was processed
- More than 74,000 merchants and 116,000 terminals are currently connected to the network that is now 3DES and EMV compliant. Today, the Paymark network processes over 75% of all electronic transactions in the New Zealand retail market on behalf of more than 50 card issuers and acquirers.

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