News

Australians like electronic transactions during holidays

December 28, 2003

SYDNEY - Australians appear to have hit the plastic hard during an end-of-year spending spree that included almost 8 million electronic card transactions for one bank alone on Christmas Eve.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Commonwealth Bank, the country's biggest card issuer, said Dec. 24's 7.9 million transactions -- including 6 million EFT/POS transactions -- made it the bank's busiest day ever for this form of processing.

On Dec. 23, it processed nearly 7 million electronic transactions, compared with just 2.3 million daily transactions earlier in the month.

The bank said its EFT/POS and ATM transactions from Dec. 9 to 24 were about 6 percent higher than over the same period last year, according to the Heraldreport.

Electronic transactions have also been strong in the post-Christmas sales period, with the Commonwealth registering 3 million EFT/POS purchases on Dec. 26. Commonwealth Bank debit and credit cards make up about 30 percent of Australia's total card market.

The chief executive of the Australian Retailers Association, Stan Moore, said electronic purchases -- on both debit and credit -- account for nearly 60 percent of all retail purchases.