APCA flatters POLi

Centricom's POLi is Australia's existing online payments service that uses online banking functions. The recent APCA discussion cited the existence of POLi, Paymate and PayPal, as evidence of competition to the scheme cards in the online payments space.

Of that group, only PayPal has a significant slice of the market and Paymate is a limited service that accepts credit card payments.

Centricom CEO, Simon Waner, says APCA flattered POLi and he is unwilling to claim that the service is yet providing any great competition to the schemes.

"It's very flattering to read in the APCA report that because of POLi, the system doesn't need any great reform, that is there is sufficient competition," said Warner yesterday.
 
"But really I think it's just a little naive to say the industry doesn't need to look at online payments.

"Having said all that, when you look at Appendix A of the APCA report - the industry requirements for an online payments vehicle - you realize that POLi basically meets all those requirements.

"I think what the PSB wants is something like us or something very like EFTPOS with an online PIN."

"If you look globally, especially in Europe, I think the long term trend is toward bank transfer models like us and iDEAL in Holland where they are now doing more online transactions than the credit card schemes.

The Dutch online payments system iDEAL claims that 70 per cent of online consumers in Holland use it rather than credit cards.