The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia is holding an online summit to get the feedback of small businesses on how payment systems from contactless debit cards, to mobile wallets and buy now, pay later products can be made more equitable.
The council said that it is small businesses that are often paying the price of this evolving technology in the form of increased merchant fees.
The summit will take place online on Wednesday (8 December) and is free for all to attend. It brings together payments experts and small-business leaders to discuss the current payments climate, the impact of recent government reviews, and what needs to change to enable small merchants to effectively compete against the large retailers, which have the buying power to negotiate fees.
Speakers at the summit will include Alexi Boyd, COSBOA chief executive; Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman; Mark McKenzie, Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association CEO; Mangala Martinus, managing director at Payments Consulting Network; Robbie MacDiarmid, head of Asia Pacific at CMSPI; and Dhun Karai, partner – financial advisory at Grant Thornton.
Solutions to help small businesses recoup costs due to high fees will be discussed.
Mr Martinus said the Payments Consulting Network has helped 100 retailers save more than $3 million in bank fees through initiatives such as routing debit transactions through the cheapest payment network (least-cost routing).
“It is unfair that most retailers are paying more than they should, because most businesses have been set up to automatically process multi-network contactless debit card payments across the Visa and Mastercard networks,” Mr Martinus said.
“These are in many cases more expensive than the cheaper Australian eftpos network.
“Least Cost Routing should be mandated as a default for every debit payment – be it in store, online or via mobile. Without question, more needs to be done to support small business lower the cost of accepting payments.”
Mr Boyd said the summit will help small businesses and their adviser understand the payments ecosystem and how they’re being impacted by its many moving parts.
“The complexity of the topic can be intimidating and make it easy for the powerful players in this space to obscure the facts,” he said.
“We will empower small businesses and their advisors with the knowledge they need to advocate for a fairer system and avoid being ripped off.”
To register for the summit go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHKvIa6WQO-qQUtmZaPR2Q.
