Niche players in the payments supply chain, EFTEX and Payment Express, have joined the eftpos membership as acquirers. Both new members also intend to use the eftpos payments hub to expand their business offerings.Prior to these signings, only six new eftpos members had joined eftpos since the inception of eftpos as a payment system in 2009, following the addition of ING Direct, Tyro, PayPal and Adyen. eftpos acting CEO, Paul Jennings, welcomed the new members, noting they would add diversity and competition to the Australian payments landscape. "These companies can now benefit from the real-time processing capabilities of the eftpos Hub infrastructure and potentially help eftpos move into new areas of the payments value chain," Jennings said. The advantage of signing up EFTEX is that eftpos gains further scale in ATM processing, outside the major banks and Suncorp."EFTEX has operated as a payments processor within Australia for more than 15 years and we are excited at the opportunities joining eftpos will bring in delivering enhanced merchant acquiring and ATM transaction processing services to our customers," EFTEX managing director, David Glen, said.Paul Stewart, EFTEX general manager, was equally positive: "A direct connection to the eftpos Hub gives our organisation the ability to provide a broader range of services to our customers - and potential new customers - point-of-sale debit card transaction acquiring," he said."The other side of the business is that we process a lot of transactions for a range of independent ATM deployers. To be able to consolidate those transactions through the eftpos Hub will provide the industry with more of a central point for transaction routing."Payment Express chief executive officer, Andrew Cullen, said he looked forward to providing his customers with the additional benefits of eftpos membership.  "eftpos Australia provides a fast, simple and secure payment system that will benefit our customers and help expand PX's offerings to customers in the Australian market," Cullen said.Payment Express also brings a new business line to eftpos - processing "unattended devices", such as drink machines and parking meters - a niche part of the market that has largely been the preserve of the major card schemes. Visa and MasterCard in particular have been big players in that market, as has Commonwealth Bank, so the potential for competitive tension is obvious.Less obvious is the fact that eftpos will open those devices to people who may not have qualified for credit or debit cards.