Payments NZ said it is working hard to ensure that merchants who are still using older EFTPOS terminals are aware that these will have to be upgraded before June 30 this year, which is when PCI 3.x devices will be cut off from the transaction network.
Several thousands of older terminals remain in use in New Zealand despite a high level of communication around the need to upgrade.
"About 20,000 PCI 3.x terminals are still in use, with most of those on track to be upgraded in the next two months," a Payments NZ spokesperson told interest.co.nz.
Payments NZ said the feedback from the industry points to widespread compliance as the June 30 sunset date approaches.
The upgrade is to ensure that merchant terminals remain compliant with requirements set by the Payments Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an industry organisation run by payments giants MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Discovery, JCB and UnionPay.
According to the Payments NZ spokesperson, the vast majority of terminals in use in Aotearoa New Zealand follow the PCI 4.x or newer standards, such as PCI 5.x or 6.x.
PCI operates a regular life cycle with upgrades for standards compliance for terminals. In New Zealand, the sunset date for PCI 3.x terminals has been extended twice, last time in August 2023 until June 30 2024. The PCI 3.x standard was expired on April 30, 2021.
Furthermore, as PCI 4.x terminals will sunset on April 30, 2026, devices following that version of the standard can no longer be connected to the EFTPOS switching network, with only newer ones being allowed.
Steve Wiggins, the chief executive of Payments NZ, explained that operating terminals with the latest standards helps keep the risk of card fraud low.
A register of devices that can connect to the New Zealand EFTPOS switching network is maintained by Payments NZ.
Terminal costs vary greatly, and can be up to $2000 plus GST. They can also be leased.
3 Comments
an ongoing cost to small business. They used to let you carry on with an older terminal for non credit card and tap and go payments.i have a shelf full of expired terminals.
With no art projects to turn them into. With the old monitors they could become creative kitsch fishtanks (knew a guy who had a company doing it professionally and lived comfortably off the proceeds). Nowadays tech waste is just more degrading plastic and metals with no options in sight for recovery. At least they lasted longer then most kitchen appliances, mobiles and laptops these days.
I keep all my(and any customers left here) old electronics, in the hope that one day I'll have the time to extract the recyclables out of them.
Latest plan is to crush and pelletise them , and sort them by weight.
i have thought of making a float with them on for the xmas parade , some of it the youngest ones wouldnt have seen before.
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