Australian payments provider Eftpos has gone live with new online security features through a handful of payment merchants, ahead of a full rollout next year.

These security features, which include two-factor authentication functionality, has initially been adopted by Till Payments, Fat Zebra, and Eftex.

The rollout of these features is part of Eftpos' five-year, AU$100 million investment it's making on digital upgrades to its network, designed to enhance the level of protection up-front for consumers and merchants, rather than retrofitting security to legacy systems.  

"This is a tipping point for Eftpos, online Australian businesses and the digital economy, and it is great to have partners like Till Payments, Fat Zebra, and Eftex onboard," Eftpos chief Stephen Benton claimed.

"This is a game changer for Eftpos and Australian retailers because retail is quickly transforming to become an increasingly digital marketplace, accelerated by COVID. Big economic benefits could flow from increased competition in addition to enhanced payments security."

The company said Eftpos payments are already available online for some card-on-file payments where banks have implemented the service for their merchant customers. Since launching the Eftpos digital service that enables LCR last year, Eftpos said it has been subject to zero fraud.

LCR is an initiative aimed at promoting competition in the debit card market and helping to reduce payment costs in the economy.

When a customer makes a contactless "tap-and-go" payment with their dual-network debit card -- not credit cards, however -- the merchant may choose to send the transaction via the debit network that costs them the least to accept. If the merchant chooses not to route, the transaction is instead sent via the default network which is programmed on the card, typically the Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit network.

If a merchant uses LCR, it should not affect which deposit account the funds are paid from, and the three networks -- Eftpos, Visa, and Mastercard -- offer similar protections to the cardholder from fraud and disputed transactions.

"This Eftpos extension will allow eCommerce merchants to securely send millions more online payments through Eftpos, resulting in substantial payment acceptance cost savings for their business and their customers," Eftex general manager Ian Sanford said.

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