BNZ cuts costs for contactless payments

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has cut the costs of using debit contactless (PayWave) payments for small and medium business customers.

As of 1 August 2020, SMEs that settle into a BNZ business bank account will pay no more than 0.70% (70 bps) per debit contactless transaction.

BNZ Chief Operating Officer Customer, Products, and Services, Dan Huggins, says “BNZ is committed to backing Kiwi businesses and doing what we can to make things faster and easier for them.

“Throughout lockdown we saw a strong increase in people using contactless payments and that trend has continued.

“This is a significant drop in debit contactless Merchant Services Fees that will make it easier for our business customers to provide this popular option for their customers,” says Mr. Huggins.

BNZ had previously waived debit contactless fees as a temporary measure to help its business customers through the COVID-19 lockdown. The waiver was in place from late March until the end of July.

The fee reflects the cost to provide the service, and every transaction involves a range of different parties who all charge fees. On a single transaction there are fees for interchange, third party processor fees, scheme fees, and costs. The new 0.70% rate pays for all of these.

Not every business is the same so BNZ also offers customers a variety of different ways to pay for their payment services. In addition to the new split pricing, businesses can choose a fixed fee for certainty or interchange plus pricing to provide complete transparency of costs.

BNZ will be rolling the new pricing out to customers progressively, taking the opportunity to discuss their needs and making sure they are on a payment model that best fits their needs.

EFTPOS transactions remain free to all business customers, which compares to a reported average cost of 0.27% in Australia.

What’s changing:

• For the month of August, all SME customers will receive their new debit contactless pricing (0.70%) the form of a rebate the following month.
• From 1 September 2020, following a system upgrade at BNZ, debit contactless payments will be processed at the new rate of 0.70% on that month’s bill.
• New pricing does not include international contactless cards, as the price to process those payments is higher due to higher international interchange and scheme fees.