In Australia, eftpos is the name of a proprietary domestic debit payment system launched in the 1980s, owned by eftpos Payments Australia Limited (ePAL) (now Australian Payments Network) that accepts bankcards or debit cards at POS "point of sale"" terminals, ATMs and most recently, online via eCommerce. Not all merchants provide EFTPOS facilities, but those who wish to accept EFTPOS payments must enter an agreement with one of the many (originally seven) merchant service providers, which rent an EFTPOS terminal to the merchant. ePal also sets the EFTPOS interchange fee. For credit cards to be accepted by a merchant a separate agreement must be entered into with each credit card company, each of which has its own flexible merchant fee rate. Eftpos machines for merchants are provided by larger banks and specialists such as Live eftpos.
