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eftpos
Bulletin March 2013

eftpos transactions grow by 7% in January and cash out continues to climb

Total January 2013 saw Australians make 198.8 million eftpos transactions, representing an increase of more than 7% compared to January 2012. For the seventh consecutive month, the value of monthly eftpos purchases exceeded $10 billion.

Purchases In January 2013 there were $10,113 million worth of eftpos purchase transactions, representing a 5% increase compared to the January 2012 result. This was achieved on a growth in eftpos transaction volume of 6.7%, compared to January 2012.		Cash The January cash metrics were robust, with a 3.7% increase in the January 2013 volume against January 2012, delivering a growth in value of 8.0%. The convenience of accessing cash via eftpos has seen the growth in share of cash grow from 8.0% in mid-2007, to 10.2%.

All the facts

Monthly results

Month	Volume (‘millions)			Value ($ millions)
	Purchases	Cash	Total^*	Purchases	Cash	Total
Jan 11	165.4	20.7	166.8	8,720	1,258	9,978
Jan 12	184.2	21.2	185.7	9,628	1,288	10,916
Dec 12	227.0	23.6	229.3	12,357	1,565	13,922
Jan 13	196.7	22.0	198.8	10,113	1,391	11,505

Annual results

Year To	Volume (‘millions)			Value ($ millions)
	Purchases	Cash	Total^*	Purchases	Cash	Total
Jan 11	1,894.4	254.5	1,911.7	102,375	15,271	117,646
Jan 12	2,162.3	265.7	2,180.7	114,325	16,043	130,368
Dec 12	2,382.5	276.6	2,405.4	123,460	16,972	140,432
Jan 13	2,395.0	277.4	2,418.6	123,945	17,075	141,020

^* The overall total transactions are less than the sum of purchases & cash as some transactions involve both functions.

In the twelve months to January 2013, the number of eftpos purchases was 2,395 million, up from 2,162 million in the previous year. This volume growth drove the value up from $114,325 million a year ago, to $123,945 million in the twelve months to January 2013.

The growth in the share of cash delivered by eftpos has been delivered by annual volumes increasing from 266 million to 277 million over the last twelve months. This 4.1% growth in transaction numbers delivered a 6.4% increase in value of $17,075 million.

Changes in the payments landscape

A review of some key attributes of the Australian payments landscape over the past five years shows a number of interesting and diverging patterns and preferences emerging. A look at the relative sizes of the ATM and eftpos terminal networks shows that not only are there more than twenty five times more eftpos terminals than ATMs, but the number of ATMs is decreasing, whereas eftpos terminals are continuing to increase. In December 2012, there were 755,405 eftpos terminals compared to 30,333 ATMs.

The differing growths of the respective networks are no doubt contributing to what are very different dynamics in the annual growth rates for eftpos and ATM for cash distribution. 2011 was the only year during the last four in which ATMs have delivered any growth in the overall volume and value of cash. Even then, it was only just in the black, while cash through the eftpos network has maintained healthy growth rates throughout, delivering a 6.0% increase in value last year.

ATMs have traditionally been the major channel for accessing cash but the dollar value has been trending downwards in recent years. In 2008, the value of cash from ATMs was 11.2 times that of cash-out at eftpos. In 2012, that multiple had decreased from 11.2 to 8.8, as eftpos increased its share of the overall cash pie.

Purchases

It is a similar story with purchases, where the annual growth rate for purchases on debit has been well above that for credit and charge throughout the past five years. Over this period in which the value of purchases made with a credit or charge card grew by 20.9%, the growth in value of purchases made with debit was 59.4%.

Debit based purchases grew at double digit rates for value and volume in each of the last five years. Credit and charge cards were in single digit territory for all of those years. The dollar gap between credit and debit is still considerable but this suggests that the differential in growth currently favouring debit has considerable scope to continue in the medium to long-term.