Eftpos has launched a digital payments capability to facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) real-time transactions.
The service is a deposit and withdrawal messaging capability so users can make payments from their accounts using Eftpos between Australian debit cardholders “in seconds”.
The payment service has initially been launched on payment app Beem It, which it bought in November from its former owners the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and Westpac.
According to Eftpos CEO Stephen Benton, the capability will replace manual processes with real-time transfer of funds.
“This capability is good for Australia because it aims to boost productivity by automating the manual and cost inefficient transfer of funds, using Eftpos’ existing and trusted Australian card network with access to hundreds of thousands of Australian merchants and millions of consumers,” he said.
Benton added the platform could potentially be used for other P2P or business-to-consumer payments such as insurance payouts, government disbursements, rebates, instant payroll, loyalty cashback, gift card loading, and newsagency lottery payouts.
“Many Australian businesses have the potential to benefit from these alternative low cost and real time payments which enable the secure deposit or deduction of funds from a cardholder’s account,” he said.
Earlier this week the company teamed up with Fintech Australia to launch what it has dubbed as a fintech advisory committee.
“The aim of the committee is to advise Eftpos on ways we can build on our efforts to make it easier for fintechs to access the Eftpos network and our products and services, in order to build their own businesses and payment experiences that can work across a broad range of connected devices in the digital economy,” Benton said.
Joining the committee are fintech companies Assembly Payments, Azupay, Bleuco, Meeco, Monoova, Paypa Plane, and Verrency.
All seven will be involved in a series of monthly workshops to focus on the Eftpos digital roadmap and API programs, before providing recommendations to Eftpos by mid-year.
Last August, Eftpos made its first play in the digital payment realm with the rollout of its digital payment service to banks and retailers.
Prior to that, the payments company teamed up with distributed ledger firm Hedera Hashgraph to develop a micropayments proof-of-concept in hopes it could be used as an alternative payment to monthly subscriptions or paywalls.