4000 Eftpos terminals face the axe tomorrow
Retailers with older machines will be disconnected.
More than 4000 Eftpos terminals could be disconnected from the country’s largest electronic transaction processing network tomorrow, when Paymark pulls the pin on its outdated terminals.
Paymark set a June 1 deadline for the nation’s retailers to switch to its more secure version 6.0 Eftpos terminals.
Today, with less than 24-hours to go, Paymark chief executive Simon Tong said more than 4000 terminals that were yet to be upgraded and would not be able to process Eftpos transactions on its network from tomorrow.
The disconnection process would start with about 650 deactivations on tomorrow, followed by further groups over June and July until all version 5.1 terminals and older had been deactivated.
“We strongly recommend retailers using these machines make arrangements to upgrade their equipment today to avoid disconnection,” said Mr Tong.
“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,” said Mr Tong.
More than 110,000 terminals had been upgraded over the last 18 months and more than 98% of all transactions on the Paymark network were being carried by compliant terminals, he said
The new terminals reduce the likelihood of electronic card fraud.
Paymark had previously warned retailers that they would need the new terminals to cash in on the $1.25 billion expected to be spent by more than 71,000 overseas visitors watching the Rugby World Cup later this year.
Paymark, set up by three banks as Electronic Transaction Services Ltd in 1989, has 100,000 terminals in shops, and processes over 75 percent of all electronic transactions in the New Zealand retail market for about 50 different debit cards.
Georgina Bond
Tue, 31 May 2011
Tue, 31 May 2011
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4000 Eftpos terminals face the axe tomorrow
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