Hundreds of retailers across New Zealand were disconnected from the computer network which linked their Eftpos terminals to banks yesterday, after the network operators said the out-of-date terminals posed risks to the safety and security of transactions.
About 400 Eftpos machines were disconnected from the Paymark network - cutting off those
retailers from processing Eftpos transactions.
"The disconnections come as a result of retailers who, despite months of warning, have not upgraded out-of-date terminals," said Paymark chief executive Simon Tong.
Until yesterday, the retailers - ranging from small businesses to large corporate merchants - operated under agreements with their banks, which allowed them extra time to get their equipment upgraded. But they had failed to do this. "The message is simple: those retailers who do not upgrade in time will be disconnected," said Mr Tong.
"This particular group of retailers have had time to make the switch, but have ignored our warnings and as a result will be unable to process Eftpos transactions on our network."
A big provider of merchant services, SmartPay last month warned that up to a quarter of the nation's retailers, 35,000 shops, were unprepared for the upgrade.
Paymark said there was a June 1 deadline for all the nation's retailers to switch to the more secure version 6.0 Eftpos terminals.
