Paymark set for Xmas Spending with Operation Santa

Please find attached a press release from Paymark.

Paymark set for Christmas Spending with Operation Santa

Retailers across the country have their festive decorations up which can mean only one thing - Christmas is just around the corner. New Zealand's largest electronic payment provider Paymark is also prepared, with the organisation's 'Operation Santa' infrastructure ready to handle the annual retail rush.

Operation Santa is Paymark's annual project coordinating all key activities to ensure optimum EFTPOS switch availability and customer satisfaction leading up to, during and after the crucial Christmas sales period.

Last year Kiwis spent more than $4 billion through the Paymark network in the weeks before Christmas. At its peak, the network was processing more than 110 transactions per second.

Paymark processes three quarters of all New Zealander's electronic transactions in store. This year the same systems and protocols will be put into place as in previous years to ensure these transactions are processed as smoothly and efficiently as Kiwis have come to expect from Paymark's world-class payment service.

Paymark CEO Simon Tong says "After a static winter spending is starting to pick up as we head into Christmas. Paymark will be tracking spending throughout December and providing regular updates to stakeholders."

Nearly 90% of Kiwis have a debit card, which puts 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.

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