The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) has convened a payments summit on Wednesday 8 December. The free online event will bring together payments experts and small-business leaders to discuss the current payments climate in Australia, the impact of recent government reviews, and what needs to change to enable small merchants to effectively compete against the large retailers who have the buying power to negotiate fees.
Those invited to speak at the event are:
- Alexi Boyd, COSBOA CEO
- Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman
- Mark McKenzie, Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association
- Mangala Martinus, Managing Director at Payments Consulting Network
- Robbie MacDiarmid, Head of Asia Pacific at CMSPI
- Dhun Karai, Partner – Financial Advisory at Grant Thornton
- Brad Kelly – Managing Director, Payment Services
“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, Mangala Martinus, Managing Director at Payments Consulting Network, 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.”
COSBOA CEO Alexi Boyd expressed the hope small businesses and their advisors would join the event to 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,” Boyd 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.”
The summit is free to attend for all those who register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHKvIa6WQO-qQUtmZaPR2Q.
