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G'daftanun, the government's credit card surcharge ban
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might have just been given a last-minute reprieve.
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It was declared dead this morning
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because ACT had pulled support for it.
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But now Labour has said it might yet support it.
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It sounds like only if the banks absorb the fees.
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Carolyn Young is the CEO of Retali and Zed
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and with us, hi, Carolyn.
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Kia ora, would that work?
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Can the banks be forced to absorb the fees?
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I think it's unlikely that that's going to happen,
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but look, that would be a good outcome for everyone
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if that was possible, wouldn't it?
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Because from a consumer and a merchant perspective,
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they wouldn't be having to bear those increased costs
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for the higher technology
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that's been introduced through contacts payments.
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Why is it unlikely to happen?
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Well, because, you know, if you talk to any bank,
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they're going to say to you that to develop
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and the credit card companies, they're going to say to you
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that to develop safer, more technologically friendly solutions
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for people to make payments.
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It costs, it takes investment and funding
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to be able to do that.
1:00
So, for example, part of the reason why F-POS
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has been declining in terms of the volume
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that goes through that those rails is because
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it's a very static program,
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that nothing's changed in 30 years or virtually
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nothing has changed in 30 years.
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So it feels and looks the same to everyone.
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And there's been no investment from the banks
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because there's no revenue from them generated in that space,
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whereas in terms of when you look at
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contactless payments being able to play through a wallet
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or through tap and go or, you know, ins众,
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which is the way you want to pay.
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All of those different methods come through
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with technology and investment
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and therefore there's significant fees
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that have been attached to them.
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And of course, a lot of that escalation and use
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happened through a post-COVID
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where we were concerned about, you know, contacting people
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and touching things and all of those sorts of areas.
1:56
So there was a great escalation in the use at that time.
2:00
And now you see, you know, 10 years ago,
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45% of transactions were done via credit.
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And now, you know, 10 years later,
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21, sorry, 71% of transactions go through either
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through a wallet, through contactless or through credit.
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And so that's a big portion that's got a significant fee
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and that's the big change in what retailers have experienced
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in terms of the fees that they're paying,
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paying back through to the banks and credit card companies.
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Does it worry you that Labor has come to the rescue here
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Look, if they can get the banks to absolve the fee
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that would be a great outcome,
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when absolutely 100% have set support for the retailers.
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Given that you don't think that it's possible,
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they may have just come to the rescue
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to force a thing through that act is just effectively
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killed off and thank God for that.
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But they may in fact revive a bad thing.
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I don't think they will.
2:49
They won't revive it as it is.
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We've had a couple of conversations
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with Arianna Williams and certainly there was no way
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that they were going to support it as status quo.
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So we've reached out to her today
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and waiting to speak to her further on her suggestions.
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Excellent. Carolyn, thank you very much.
3:06
Appreciate it, Carolyn.