Eftpos chief executive Stephen Benton has announced his departure from the domestic payments service following the formal activation of Australian Payments Plus Ltd – the new holding company for the NPP, Eftpos and BPay.
Benton, who took the reins of Eftpos in May 2018, announced his retirement in a statement sent to the company’s customers and stakeholders on Monday.
“The dedicated team at eftpos is very much looking forward to working as part of AustralianPayments Plus, and the new CEO of AP+ Lynn Kraus who starts in March,” Benton told stakeholders.
“There is strong alignment between AP+’s objectives and eftpos’ purpose of being “Good For Australia”, and a commitment to the delivery of our Roadmap.
“This alignment should see eftpos continue to drive competition and innovation in debit card payments and digital, while pursuing new opportunities to innovate with other parts of the new AP+ organisation.”
Benton said Eftpos was rapidly evolving into a leading distributor of digital services beyond payments and highlighted the company’s role in helping to lower the acceptance costs of Australian small businesses.
He also highlighted the importance of least cost routing in the contactless debit payments market – a cause that has been met with resistance from the four major banks.
“Although much more still needs to be done on issues like Least Cost Routing (LCR), mobile competition, digital platforms and ecommerce, over the past few years we have seen some significant benefits for merchants and consumers where competition truly exists, and the beginnings of some regulatory change,” he said.
“Regulator enshrining of competition remains critical for small business, consumers and government, and encourage continued advocacy for this principle.”
Benton said he would be drawing the curtain on his executive career and taking up roles as an independent director.
Late in December, the AP+ board appointed Lynn Kraus to lead the new payments business. Kraus, who is yet to start, is moving from EY Oceania, where she was transaction strategy and execution partner.
NPP Australia CEO Adrian Lovney has been acting as AP+ interim CEO and will become its permanent chief operating officer when Krauss starts.