Card issuers and acquirers will start deploying the eftpos chip technology on scheme debit cards and on terminals in the second half of the year.Eftpos chief executive Bruce Mansfield has outlined the next phase of innovation to make Australia's payments provider more competitive. While it can still lay claim to being Australia's most widely used electronic payments system, Mansfield conceded that eftpos needed rapid transformation to remain relevant."We've always known that we had to bring eftpos into the EMV and contactless arena," he said. "We also concluded that it was also the right time to consider our infrastructure which, for the last 20 years, has been a series of bilateral links between the participants."The transformation comprises three distinct streams of work: bringing eftpos onto an EMV-type (chip and PIN) card; developing a payments hub; and creating a competitive online and mobile payments system.Mansfield said this was "general housekeeping" to bringing eftpos up to a more secure level of processing, initially for scheme debit cards in 2014, before moving onto proprietary cards in 2015.The first stage of its card "catch-up" has involved working with Gemalto to develop an EMV chip, then upgrading POS terminals to support the new eftpos chip-enabled and contactless cards, alongside the other payment schemes. "We've concluded most of the supply chain work on our side," Mansfield said. He expects all issuers and acquirers in the market to start deploying the eftpos chip technology on scheme debit cards and on terminals in the second half of the year."Our card-based contactless is clearly [based on] EMV and we have to fit into the existing infrastructure for scheme debit and credit cards and proprietary cards," Mansfield said.Mansfield also noted that eftpos signed up FIS in September to build a payments "e-hub". "Since October, we've been building the hub and preparing with our members to start running it next year," he said. eftpos is now carrying out functional and capacity testing in its Sydney and Melbourne data centres. "Our current schedule is to bring on two 'early connectors' in August or September; will then bring on three or more before the end of the year," Mansfield said.  "Our goal is to complete connectivity by the third quarter of 2015."Mansfield added that the hub - once it's up and running - will play a doubly important role. Apart from linking all members into a single system, rather than as a series of bilateral links between members, he expects the hub will provide a platform for eftpos innovations of the future, particularly around contactless, online and mobile.In regard to mobile payments, Mansfield said that since the announcement in May last year that eftpos was to start working with secure mobile transactions technology specialist, C-SAM, to develop a "proof of concept" for a range of mobile payment options, his company has been working with other technology providers, notably IP Payments. "We announced in December that we'd begin trialling our mobile NFC solutions and QR code solutions in Sydney and Melbourne," Mansfield said.These trials involved 200 users and 20