Pin Punching Kiwi's Spend $4.0 Billion in December

Pin Punching Kiwi's Spend $4.0 Billion in December

During December 2007 New Zealanders spent over $4.0 billion across the country via 70 million transactions processed through the Paymark network alone, up 8 percent year-on-year.

Nelson showed the highest increase in volume at 11 percent for the month, while Waikato, Wanganui and Canterbury were also in double figures. The smallest increase was in Gisborne where retailers felt the retail knock-on effects of the earthquake that saw many main street stores closed for a day or so, but the region was still up 5 percent in volume for the month compared to last year.

Across the country, New Zealanders spent more than $1billion in the week before Christmas, with spending hitting an all-time peak just after lunch on Christmas Eve. At this time, Paymark was processing more than 110 transactions per second. During the hour from 12.00-1.00pm the same day, 370,000 electronic transactions were processed.

Further data from New Zealand’s largest electronic payment systems provider shows we are still enjoying the holiday season and the great spell of weather. From Monday 31 December to Sunday 6 January more than 14 million electronic transactions were made across the country, up 17 percent on last year indicating a steady start to 2008.

Simon Tong, Chief Executive Officer, Paymark, says that these latest figures indicate that the month of December was in line with expectations for retailers across the country with steady growth in nearly all regions.

“An 8 percent overall increase in transaction volume year-on-year is healthy, but slightly down on the previous year’s growth of 9.5%”. The growth once again highlights Kiwi’s continued shift towards electronic payments as their preferred method of paying at the expense of more traditional ones such as cash and cheques”.

The Paymark system processes three quarters of all electronic transactions in New Zealand. Nearly 90% of Kiwis have a debit card, putting us ahead of any other country in the world in terms of EFTPOS use.

ENDS

About Paymark:
In 1989 three banks came together to form Electronic Transaction Services Limited. They had the vision of a national real time payment system. Through their commitment to the retail payments industry the company has developed what has arguably become the best EFTPOS system in the world.
EFTPOS appeared on the New Zealand retail scene in 1984, only five years after the country’s first Bank ATM (cash dispenser) was installed. New Zealand’s first EFTPOS system operated from a service station and a supermarket attached to a bank computer.
In 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. In 1996 Bank of New Zealand joined the network and EFTPOS as a payment mechanism entered a tremendous growth phase.
In 1998 ETSL passed another milestone - as the 1 Billionth EFTPOS transaction was processed. By the year 2000 EFTPOS was well and truly identified as a public utility. ETSL saw its 2 Billionth transaction pass through the system in November 2000 and 6 Billionth transaction mid way through 2007. The system, rebranded as the Paymark EFTPOS network, processes nearly 75% of all electronic transactions in the New Zealand retail market on behalf of more than 50 card issuers and acquirers. More than 65,000 merchants and 80,000 terminals are currently connected to the network that is now 3DES and EMV compliant.
The company offers services to merchants, card issuers and acquirers for eftpos, eCommerce, mCommerce and ATM payment and related transaction processing.

Regional Electronic Transactions 1 - 31 December 2007

Region Transaction Volume Value Vol Increase
year-on-year
Auckland/Northland 27,366,250 $1,592,281,969 9%
Waikato 5,472,600 $289,680,898 10%
Bay of Plenty 4,943,806 $272,882,448 7%
Gisborne 752,716 $36,641,450 5%
Taranaki & Taupo 1,917,948 $95,216,414 7%
Hawkes Bay 2,261,365 $120,872,428 8%
Wanganui 880,169 $42,626,225 10%
Palmerston North 2,411,469 $126,963,672 7%
Wairarapa 727,887 $38,631,522 7%
Wellington 7,890,761 $413,541,274 7%
Nelson 1,561,410 $87,219,685 11%
Marlborough 953,241 $54,789,637 8%
West Coast 544,907 $34,101,496 9%
Canterbury 8,468,261 $473,923,407 10%
South Canterbury 1,128,150 $62,856,054 7%
Otago 3,634,281 $210,568,019 9%
Southland 1,705,466 $100,319,138 9%
Total 72,620,687 $4,053,115,737 8%

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