Business-only bank Tyro has launched Tap & Save, saving Australian businesses money by processing debit “tap and go” payments through the more economical eftpos network.
According to eftpos, debit cards represent almost 70 per cent of all card transactions in Australia and of that 74 per cent are multi-network debit (MND) cards, featuring both eftpos and international schemes such as Visa and MasterCard.
At present, merchants are forced to process MND contactless payments through higher-priced international schemes rather than eftpos, costing merchants hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual fees.
In its report on reforming the Australian banking sector, The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics recommended if the banks do not act by 1 April 2018, regulatory action should be taken to ensure merchants have the choice of how to process tap and go payments on dual network cards.
Launched ahead of the deadline, Tyro’s first-to-market initiative gives Australian businesses the choice to automatically process MND contactless transactions to the least-cost payment network.
Tap & Save transactions will be priced the same as eftpos transactions, meaning Tyro merchants will save on average six per cent on their Merchant Services Fees and the majority of Tyro merchants will save between 20-30 per cent on re-routed transactions.
Bronwyn Yam, director of product at Tyro, says the initiative aims to remove the barriers from business success.
“Tap & Save has the potential to provide Tyro merchants with some relief from the expense of doing business,” she says.
“We constantly look at how we can make banking and payments easier and more cost effective for merchants. Tyro’s commitment to delivering value to customers with Tap & Save even comes at the expense of our own bottom line.”