EFTPOS changed how New Zealand pays. Now we’re building for whatever comes next
New Zealand has a proud history of doing things differently when it comes to payments. Paymark has been part of that story for more than 35 years, from helping pioneer EFTPOS and electronic payments in 1989, to launching New Zealand’s first open banking payment solution, Online EFTPOS, in 2016.
Now we’re taking another significant step forward: building the next generation of Paymark’s payment switch in the cloud.
For something most New Zealanders will never see, it’s a significant change.
The invisible technology behind every tap
Most of us don’t think about what happens after we tap or insert a card or device. We simply expect our payment to work.
But in the few seconds between presenting a card and seeing “accepted”, technology is working behind the scenes to connect merchants, terminals and banks and get that payment where it needs to go.
At the heart of that is Paymark’s payment switch. It’s largely invisible, but it supports something New Zealand businesses and consumers depend on every day: the ability to buy and sell goods and services simply, securely and reliably.
For decades, that technology has served New Zealand exceptionally well. But the way we pay is changing.
Cards and EFTPOS remain important, but they increasingly sit alongside ecommerce, digital wallets, open banking and new forms of digital commerce. The infrastructure underneath payments needs to be ready to evolve with them.
Taking a proven system and rebuilding it for the future
Moving a payment switch to a modern cloud-based platform is a significant undertaking. But it’s not change for change’s sake.
As more of the world looks to digital technology to become more effective, efficient and responsive, payments infrastructure also needs the ability to adapt.
Paymark’s future platform is being designed around cloud-native technology, providing greater scalability and flexibility as payment needs evolve. Our future switch will also use the AWS New Zealand Region, enabling this new infrastructure to be hosted in New Zealand.
But while the technology is changing, some things aren’t. Security, availability, resilience and trust remain non-negotiable.
So, what does this mean for New Zealand businesses?
For a café owner, retailer or ecommerce business, the technology sitting behind a payment probably isn’t something they want to spend much time thinking about.
And that’s exactly the point.
Businesses simply want payments to work. They want them to be reliable and secure, while keeping pace with how their customers increasingly want to pay.
The real benefit of modernising the infrastructure underneath payments is therefore less about the cloud itself and more about what it makes possible.
A more flexible and scalable platform provides a stronger foundation for introducing new capabilities as the market changes, supporting the payment methods we rely on today while creating greater flexibility for what comes next.
For merchants, that means infrastructure better equipped to support greater payment choice and evolving customer expectations, whether their customers are paying in-store, online or through new digital experiences.
Making change easier across the payments ecosystem
Payments are an ecosystem.
Banks, technology providers, payment companies, platforms and merchants all play a role in making a payment happen. Paymark’s role has long been to connect important parts of that ecosystem.
Modernising our switch creates a more flexible foundation as that ecosystem evolves. It supports banks and partners as they develop and connect new services, and ultimately helps give businesses and consumers more choice as new ways to pay emerge.
That ability to adapt matters.
New Zealand’s payments landscape continues to evolve, with open banking, digital identity, real-time experiences and emerging technologies such as AI creating new possibilities for how we pay and interact digitally.
The infrastructure underpinning those experiences needs to evolve too.
Building for payment experiences we haven’t imagined yet
If history has taught us anything, it’s that it’s difficult to predict exactly how people will pay in the future.
More than 35 years ago, few people could have imagined just how completely EFTPOS would become part of everyday New Zealand life.
A decade ago, Paymark introduced Online EFTPOS. Since then, more than $1 billion has been spent through the service, giving New Zealanders another way to pay online directly from their bank accounts.
We don’t know exactly which technologies or experiences will define the next era of payments.
What we do know is that the infrastructure underneath them needs to be ready.
Moving payments forward. Together.