ANZ acquires Eftpos NZ

Seeking to boost its flagging share of the New Zealand Eftpos market, the ANZ Bank has acquired 100% of specialist Eftpos products and services provider, Eftpos New Zealand Ltd.

Seeking to boost its flagging share of the New Zealand Eftpos market, the ANZ Bank has acquired 100% of specialist Eftpos products and services provider, Eftpos New Zealand Ltd.

ANZ runs its own Eftpos switch, in competition with ETSL (Electronic Transaction Services Limited), which is jointly owned by the other four major trading banks, BNZ, WestpacTrust, National and the ASB. In recent years, ANZ’s share of the transaction switching market has fallen from a high of 20% to 13%.

General manager of cards for ANZ in New Zealand, Ian Colley, who moved into the position four months ago, thought something had to be done to grow market share, so the bank approached Eftpos NZ with a takeover proposal.

The parties hope the availability of a “one-stop shop” for network provider, terminal provider and bank services will encourage more merchants to switch to the partners – existing ANZ customers to Eftpos NZ terminals and existing Eftpos NZ customers to the ANZ Bank.

The bank hopes at least to double its current 13% share of transaction flow within two to three years, says Colley, though 50% of the market would be a bit ambitious, he adds.

Market surveys have shown little concern about customers of the other banks letting ANZ run their Eftpos connection, says Eftpos NZ director Peter Marshall.

There will be clear opportunities to cross-sell ANZ’s other card products to the Eftpos NZ customer base.

Packages of Eftpos terminal rental and network services will be bundled in a different way under the new arrangement, but the partners are not necessarily promising price reductions to the customer; rather “better service.”

Eftpos NZ was previously owned in equal shares of just under 30% by Marshall, fellow director Peter Thomson and investment company Emerald Capital, with a fourth party connected with Walker Datavision owning 12.5%.

The price paid for the acquisition has not been revealed.

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