Fastest Volume Growth Through Paymark Network in Six Years

Electronic Spending Data: Fastest Volume Growth Through Paymark Network in Six Years

Auckland, Tuesday 10 June 2014: Figures released today by Paymark point towards a strong and consistent month of trading during May, with annual growth in the volume of transactions processed through its switch the fastest since 2008.

Kiwis swiped and/or tapped their cards just under 90 million times during May – and the surge was especially notable during the first seven days of the month where spending was up 9.1 per cent across the country, compared to the same week of trading in 2013.

Paymark Head of Customer Relations Mark Spicer says “After a rapid first week of trading, spending evened out and finished up at an overall growth rate of 8.7 per cent for the month. Stronger trading throughout May can be explained by a number of factors. Paymark has had a 3.5 per cent increase in the number of merchants using our network, year on year, the rise of contactless continues to make its effects felt in our data and it also looks as if there has been an improvement in spending within most of the sectors we report on –though not all.

“In terms of other factors that might play a part in the strong spending data, May also had five Saturdays this year, whereas last year there were only four. With Saturday being the day of the week that typically results in the highest volume of transactions processed through our network, this will have impacted the data and trends we’ve seen in May.”

He adds that the trends associated with credit card spending outstripping debit cards has continued and says that this is something we can expect to see on an ongoing basis, as more and more contactless cards come into the market and merchants enable their terminals to accept this payments method.

The increase in transactions during May resulted in dollars spent through the Paymark network increasing by 8.3 per cent. At a sector level, trading was strong for those operating in the hospitality sector, with a 14.0 percent increase year on year. Food and liquor stores also recorded an increase of 12.3 per cent in spending from the same month last year.

There was modest spending growth among department stores (+4.6 per cent), appliance retailers (+3.6 per cent) and clothing shops (+2.7 per cent) compared to 2013, whereas spending continued to decline within the book, stationery, and video sector (-3.4 per cent).

Across the country, spending growth was most marked in Bay of Plenty (+10.2 per cent), Canterbury (+8.6 per cent), and Waikato (+8.5 per cent). However, growth was slow in Wellington (+3.0 per cent) and the West Coast (+1.8 per cent).

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