Westpac to route ATM transactions through Eftpos Hub

Westpac will begin routing some of its ATM transactions through the Eftpos Hub payments gateway from later this month.

Eftpos launched its payments Hub, a centralised real-time gateway, in October 2013. Prior to the launch, the point of sale payment provider had relied solely on bilateral partnerships between banks and merchants for all its transactions.

A number of Australian banks already use Hub for point of sales transactions, including Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, ING Direct and Suncorp, according to Eftpos.

ANZ Bank and NAB also reportedly jumped aboard earlier this year. Both banks have been contacted for comment.

However Westpac will among be the first to connect its ATM network to the platform in order to route transactions to other Hub members.

Eftpos chief executive Bruce Mansfield told iTnews the Hub meant banks could more easily upgrade their ATMs "for changes such as the imminent move to EMV for better security against fraud".

Eftpos also last year introduced an online and mobile payments gateway, which was developed in partnership with a third-party provider and trialled by 350 customers in the Coles online store.

The payments company is now preparing to upgrade the platform to add tokenisation capabilities and the ability for online and mobile transactions using cheque and savings accounts by next year.

“Mobile is particularly important for Eftpos because we believe mobile payments, while relatively small in Australia at the moment, will take off rapidly in the next few years," Mansfield said.

Eftpos members are also currently testing Eftpos chip and contactless cards - which replace the magnetic strip technology - and will begin issuing them to customers in the coming months.