Retail Electronic Payments System (REPS) Monthly Statistics Updates

National Switch Statistics

The Payment Systems Department runs two mission-critical systems for the continued operation of business and consumers in PNG, with the support of other departments of the bank.  The two systems are Kina Automated Transfer System (KATS) and Retail Electronic Payment System (REPS), which are operated by a dedicated group of employees who ensures their smooth operations. The inability of the payment systems, either KATS & REPS to process payments effectively and efficiently could disrupt nationwide economic activity. 

What does REPS Process? 

REPS processes card-based transactions using ATMs and EFTPOS terminals. The six members of REPS include commercial banks, microbanks and Savings and Loan organisations. They are BSP, Westpac, Kina Bank, NCSL, MiBank and PMBL. Any ATM or EFTPOS terminal offered by a REPS Member (excluding ATM’s of PMBL will be added in second half on 2020) is open to the local debit cards offered by any other Member. This means a card issued by any of these Members can be used at other REPS Member device making in-store payments easy and access to cash available at virtually all ATMs and EFTPOS counters in PNG.

REPS is a 24/7 system. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – every day of the year. If people need to make a card-based payment on the weekend or after business hours REPS processes the transaction. An important transaction offered by REPS (and local debit cards) is the EFTPOS Purchase + Cashback. This allows people to make a card payment at a shop and get cash at the same time. 

When did REPS Go-Live? 

The Retail Electronic Payments System (REPS), with the National Switch at its core, commenced operation on 21^st July 2019, with three inaugural members, namely BSP, Kina Bank and NCSL and three more institutions joined on 1st September. They were Westpac Bank, PMBL and MiBank. This brings the total of six (6) financial institutions connected to National Switch. Another important development during the period was the acquisition of ANZ Bank Retail Customers by Kina Bank on 23^rd September, which resulted to a significant increase in volumes processed by the National Switch. 

After the launch in July 2019, REPS continued to deliver improved access with minimal disruptions and processed over 16 million chargeable transactions (excluding balance enquiries), valued at K2.88billion to December 2020. The Project Team has completed the plans for the remainder of the first phase to add payments initiated through mobile channels and more members joining to improve access and increase competition.

In addition to the National Switch REPS introduced a new multi-lateral operating agreement, fees and rules as well as updated policies to provide improved safety and stability for retail payments.

Refer to REPS Statistics and Charts below.

Statistics from all Participating Institutions

(BSP, Kina, NCSL, WPC, MiBank & PMBL)

Total Values and Volumes Processed by National Switch

PERIOD	VOLUMES								CUMU-LATIVE VALUES
	Automated Teller Machine (ATM)			Point of Sale (POS)		Charge-able Volumes1	Chargeable Cumulative Industry Volumes	Cumulative Total Volumes	K’ Million
Month	With- drawal	Bal Enq (Not charged)	Cumu-lative Bal Enq	Purch & Cash Back	Purchase
2019
July2	894	483	483	870	2,836	4,600	4,600	5,083	0.92
August	3,204	1,998	2,481	2,847	9,721	15,772	20,372	22,853	4.39
September3	146,216	85,246	87,727	224,816	329,624	700,658	721,030	808,757	124.57
October4	221,732	123,180	210,907	301,764	474,973	998,469	1,719,499	1,930,406	302.50
November	223,217	135,236	346,143	290,022	459,192	972,431	2,691,930	3,038,073	476.39
December	256,893	165,796	511,939	342,080	533,208	1,132,181	3,824,111	4,336,050	693.60
2020
January	234,161	137,836	649,775	306,429	477,900	1,018,490	4,842,601	5,492,376	889.72
February5	220,542	135,624	785,399	285,966	446,168	952,676	5,795,277	6,580,676	1,069.00
March	205,550	128,948	914,347	284,110	444,724	934,384	6,729,661	7,644,008	1,233.99
April	177,090	122,814	1,037,161	263,219	382,522	822,831	7,552,492	8,589,653	1,375.57
May	218,001	128,788	1,165,949	345,990	493,460	1,057,451	8,609,943	9,775,892	1,558.21
June	217,835	132,723	1,298,672	304,415	453,984	976,234	9,586,177	10,884,849	1,734.36
July6	230,221	141,425	1,440,097	341,838	517,508	1,089,567	10,675,744	11,974,416	1,935.87
August7	211,157	117,818	1,557,915	330,976	471,087	1,013,220	11,688,964	12,987,636	2,114.75
September	220,413	124,243	1,682,158	325,888	467,046	1,013,347	12,702,311	14,384,469	2,292.60
October8	234,575	131,730	1,813,888	352,301	496,896	1,083,772	13,786,083	15,599,971	2,478.43
November9	222,270	124,354	1,938,242	334,654	481,726	1,038,650	14,824,733	16,762,975	2,655.41
December10	256,186	146,110	2,084,352	398,585	598,038	1,252,809	16,077,542	18,161,894	2,886.35

¹ Sum of “Withdrawals, Purchase and Cash Advance and Purchase only”, Excluding the “Balance Enquiry”

² On 21st July, National Switch Went-Live with BSP, Kina Bank and NCSL. 

³ In 01st September 2019, additional three institutions, Westpac, PMBL & MiBank joined the National Switch and following on 22nd September Kina Bank acquired the Retail business from ANZ Bank. This resulted to substantial increase in the volumes of transaction switched via the National Switch. 

⁴ 10-Oct-19 – Over One (1) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National switch.

⁵ 19-Feb-20 – Over One (1) Billion Kina were processed by the National switch. 

⁶ Jul-20 – Over Ten (10) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National Switch.

⁷ Aug-20 – Over K2 Billion and Over Eleven (11) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National Switch.

⁸ Oct-20 – Over K2.4 Billion and Over Thirteen (13) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National Switch. 

⁹ Nov-20 – Over K2.6 Billion and Over Thirteen (14) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National Switch.

¹⁰ Dec-20 – Over K2.8 Billion and Over Sixteen (16) million chargeable transactions were processed by the National Switch and an annual revenue of K1.2m YTD and K1.6m since inception of REPS.

REPS Charts

This chart indicates the monthly volumes by type of cards used for payment and aggregate values in K’ millions.  

NB: Monthly industry values (K’ millions) shown in this chart, when added together month by month since go-live in July 2019, will equate to the cumulative values (K’ millions) shown in the statistics table on the previous page.

Payment Systems Department
11th January 2021