REPS Monthly Statistics Updates

NATIONAL SWITCH STATISTICS

The Payment Systems Department runs two mission critical systems for the continued operation of business and consumers in PNG, with the support of other departments of the bank.  The two systems are Kina Automated Transfer System (KATS) and the National Switch-Retail Electronic Payment System (REPS), which is operated by a dedicated group of employees who ensures their smooth operations. The inability of the payment systems, either KATS & REPS to process payments effectively and efficiently could disrupt nationwide economic activity.

In July 2024, another milestone was achieved when Tisa Bank Ltd and Credit Bank PNG were connected to the National Switch on 8th July & 15th July, respectively. This bring the total of eight (8) financial institutions connected to National Switch.

What does REPS Process?

REPS processes card-based transactions using ATMs and EFTPOS terminals.  The eight members of REPS include commercial banks, Micro Banks, Savings and Loan organizations.  They are BSP, Westpac, Kina Bank, Credit Bank PNG, Tisa Bank, NCSL, MiBank, and PMBL. 

Any ATM or EFTPOS terminal offered by a REPS Member is open to the local debit cards offered by any other Member.  This means a card issued by any of these Members can be used at other REPS Member devices making in-store payments easy and access to cash available at virtually all ATMs and EFTPOS counters in PNG.  

With Kina Bank decommissioning the use of its local debit cards on the 31st October 2024 and issuing Visa Debit Cards, REPS will not be capturing the Kina Bank Visa Debit Cards transactions.

REPS also processes Instant Payment Transactions (IPT).  IPT was launched in March 2021. These are a real time digital payment currently offered by the non-bank REPS members – NCSL, MiBank and PMBL.  IPT volumes remain low as expected until the commercial banks offer them. Refer to Table 1. Commercial banks and Mobile Network Operators (MNO’s) will be added after the review of National Payments Strategy 2024-2026 is completed and implemented in 2025

REPS is a 24/7 system.  It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – every day of the year.  If people need to make a card-based payment on the weekend or after business hours REPS processes the transaction.  An important transaction offered by REPS (and local debit cards) is the EFTPOS Purchase + Cashback.  This allows people to make a card payment at a shop and get cash at the same time.  

When did REPS Go-Live?

The Retail Electronic Payments System (REPS), with the National Switch at its core, commenced operation in 21 July 2019, with three inaugural members, namely BSP, Kina Bank and NCSL and three more institutions joined on 1st of September. They were Westpac Bank, PMBL and MiBank. Another important development during the period was the acquisition of ANZ Bank Retail Customers by Kina Bank on the 23rd September, which resulted to significant increase in volumes processed by the National Switch. 

Two new REPS members joined in July 2024. They are TISA Bank on the 8th of July and Credit Bank on the 15th of July 2024. This brings the total of eight (8) financial institutions connected to National Switch. 

After the launch in July 2019, REPS continued to deliver improved access with minimal disruptions and processed over 85.2 million transactions (excluding balance enquiries), valued at K14.9 billion at the end of October 2024. 

Ongoing Developments 

In May 2024, the draft National Payments Strategy (NPS) 2024-2026 was released to the National Payments Council for review and feedback. Following the review, the strategy was updated and was presented to the Board of BPNG in September 2024. The Board advised to provide more detail on collaborating efforts with all stakeholders in BPNG, pricing models and clear plans for outsourcing REPS in the future. It will be presented to the Board in November 

The Board noted that financial inclusion was integral to the Strategy and required more focus, in particular how the instant payments gateway would increase financial inclusion. Financial inclusion should be the overarching objective of the Strategy, and that more consideration needed to be given as to how the Strategy would increase it through the steps proposed. 

The Board asked for more information about the profitability or otherwise of the existing payments systems or channels including REPS and KATS that could be used as a baseline for future development including a strong business case for the provision of subsidized services and how it would impact financial inclusion. The Board asked to strengthened summary of the strategy and work-plan for 2025-2026, and a developed business case including costings, staging and timeframes for 2025. They asked for further consultation, particularly regarding the ICT requirements.

A working group has been formed to review the Strategy and develop the additional information for the Board, and in particular the business cases.  

Statistics from all Participating Institutions[1]

(BSP, Kina, NCSL, WPC, MiBank & PMBL)

Total Values and Volumes Processed by National Switch

Table 1. REPS Summary Statistics

	Total Transaction Volumes		IPT Values
Period	Domestic Debit Cards	Instant Payment Transactions (IPT)	Total (PGK)	Average Transaction Value (PGK)
2019[2]	4,336,050	N/A	N/A	N/A
2020	13,825,844	N/A	N/A	N/A
2021[3]	18,118,532	211	84,751	402
2022	25,937,214	779	358,373	460
2023	28,611,453	570	208,836	366
2024[4]	22,109,709	607	251,576	414
January	2,330,321	69	35,107	509
February	2,371,821	93	39,310	423
March	2,439,152	75	33,332	444
April	2,355,687	115	42,108	366
May	2,573,828	98	39,762	406
June	2,488,792	58	21,486	370
July[5]	2,543,463	51	26,816	526
August	2,550,511	48	13,655	284
September	2,456,134	0	0	0
October[6]	2,546,893	0	0	0

[1] Table 1 statistics “Excludes” transactions between Kina Bank and MiBank. Refer Table 3.

[2] On 21st July 2019, National Switch went live with BSP, Kina Bank and NCSL. The other three (3) new members, namely Westpac, PMBL and MiBank were connected on 01st September 2019.

[3] On 28th March 2021, Instant Payments Transactions (IPT’s) went live.

[4] The 2024 figures are up to October

[5]Tisa Bank & Credit Bank were connected to the National Switch on 8th July & 15th July, respectively.

[6] There are no IPT transactions since September of 2024 due to NCSL and NBC/PMBL making a decision to disconnect from REPS IPT services pending an IPT solution by BPNG.

Table 2. Debit Card Statistics

P E R I O D	VOLUMES									VALUES
	ATM			POS			Chargeable Industry Volumes [1]	Chargeable Cumulative Industry Volumes	Total Vol	Cumulative Total Volumes	Industry Values (PGK'm)	Cumulative Industry Values (PGK'm)
	Withdwl	Bal Enq (Not Charged)	Cumulative BI	Purch & Cash Adv + C/Back	Purchase	Bal Enq  (Not Charged)
2019[7]	852,156	511,939	511,939	1,162,399	1,809,554		3,824,111	3,824,111	4,336,050	4,336,050	693.60	693.60
2020	2,648,001	1,572,413	2,084,352	3,874,371	5,731,059		12,253,431	16,077,542	13,825,844	18,161,894	2,192.75	2,886.35
2021	2,968,050	3,806,257	5,890,609	4,729,975	6,614,250		14,312,275	30,389,817	18,118,532	36,280,426	2,539.45	5,425.79
2022[8]	3,490,260	1,604,040	7,494,649	6,338,566	8,639,381	5,864,967	18,468,207	48,858,024	25,937,214	62,217,640	3,300.05	8,725.79
2023	3,218,970	1,418,418	8,913,067	6,710,903	9,566,107	7,697,055	19,495,980	68,354,004	28,611,453	90,829,093	3,419.61	12,122.08
2024	2,423,008	1,101,964	10,015,031	6,173,702	8,144,705	6,812,913	16,871,453	85,225,821	24,656,292	115,485,695	2,794.14	14,916.22
Jan	225,768	95,635	9,008,702	589,379	776,398	643,141	1,591,545	69,945,549	2,330,321	93,159,414	285.79	12,407.87
Feb	241,937	100,586	9,109,288	593,032	783,378	652,888	1,618,347	71,563,896	2,371,821	95,531,235	279.78	12,687.65
Mar	237,475	97,066	9,206,354	623,277	812,623	668,711	1,673,375	73,237,271	2,439,152	97,970,387	274.32	12,961.97
Apr	231,037	93,470	9,299,824	589,524	802,199	639,457	1,622,504	74,859,775	2,355,687	100,326,074	268.68	13,230.65
May	258,353	107,764	9,407,588	633,652	857,279	716,780	1,749,284	76,609,315	2,573,828	102,899,902	292.52	13,523.17
June	238,610	204,027	9,611,615	586,428	794,154	665,573	1,749,230	78,358,235	2,488,792	105,388,384	269.42	13,792.59
July	248,514	101,437	9,713,052	646,399	848,576	698,537	1,743,489	80,102,088	2,543,463	107,932,157	290.58	14,083.17
Aug	241,272	96,853	9,809,905	655,842	850,931	705,613	1,748,045	81,850,133	2,550,511	110,482,668	280.90	14,364.06
Sep	234,538	91,860	9,901,765	635,108	815,415	679,213	1,685,061	83,535,194	2,456,134	112,938,802	273.02	14,637.09
Oct[9]	265,814	113,266	10,015,031	621,061	803,752	743,000	1,690,627	85,225,821	2,546,893	115,485,695	279.13	14,916.22

[7] On 21st July, National Switch Went-Live with BSP, Kina Bank and NCSL. On the 01st of September 2019, three additional institutions, Westpac, PMBL & MiBank joined the National Switch and following on 22nd September Kina Bank acquired the Retail business from ANZ Bank. This resulted to substantial increase in the volumes of transactions switched via the National Switch.

[8] Beginning year 2022 - POS BI was part of ATM BI calculations effective 29 Mar 21 to 31 Dec 21. It was then captured as separate item column effective 01Jan22 under POS BI. The statistics also reveals that most cardholders use POS to check their balances instead of ATM’s.

[9] October 2024 – the National Switch processed over K14.9b. The volumes processed during the same period was over 85.2 million (chargeable) & 30.3 million (non-chargeable) transactions.

Chart 1. REPS Charts from all participating Institutions

This chart indicates the monthly volumes by type of cards used for payment and aggregate values in K’ millions.

NB: Monthly industry values (K’ millions) shown in this chart, when added together month by month since go-live in July 2019, will equate to the cumulative values (K’ millions) shown in the statistics table on the previous page. 

In April 2021 REPS introduced the Point of Sale- Balance Inquiry (POI-BI) transaction. The figures above for ATM Bal Inquiry include the POS BI volumes from April 2021 onwards.  As this transaction has no fees it has been popular with end-customers and its impact can be seen from May onwards. 

Volumes were particularly high in the December festive season and have returned to normal trend in January.  Note as well that POS BI was effectively separated from ATM Bal Inquiry and captured as a separate line item effective Jan-2022.

Note: The black trend-line on the graph shows POS Balance enquiry (Not chargeable) segregated and reported separately beginning in January 2022 – Refer to Table-2. April 2023 indicates a spike in the POS BI transactions due to upgrade of BSP’s Core Banking Services early April that affected BSP customer’s mobile banking and Internet banking services.

MiBank Transactions with Kina Bank

In August 2020 Kina Bank and MiBank commenced a business arrangement relating to card transactions for the MiBank customers to be routed via Kina Bank.  The arrangement means:

1. REPS sends all MiBank card transactions to Kina Bank, who in turn sends them to MiBank;
2. When MiBank customers use Kina Bank terminals they are routed directly to MiBank and they are not sent to REPS. 

As a part of this arrangement MiBank, as the card Issuer, has agreed to have the transactions performed on Kina Bank terminals charged by BPNG in the same way as if they were processed using REPS. 

These transaction volumes are reported to BPNG every day.  Table 3 contains these statistics.  These transactions are in addition to the volumes shown in Tables 1 & 2. 

Table 3. Statistics from MiBank & Kina Bank

Total Values and Volumes Processed by National Switch

P E R I O D	VOLUMES								VALUES
	ATM With drawal	ATM Bal Enq (Not Charged)	Cumul  ative BI	POS - Purch & Cash Adv + Cash Back	POS Purchase	Chargeable Industry Volumes [1]	Chargeable Cumulative Industry Volumes	Total Volumes	Cumulative Total Volumes	Industry Values  (PGK'm)	Cumulative Industry Values (PGK'm)
2020	10,925	4,862	12,732	5,514	6,541	22,980	22,980	27,842	27,842	13.63	13.63
2021	47,054	18,422	23,284	29,960	34,833	111,847	134,827	130,269	158,111	52.82	66.45
2022	98,470	40,004	63,288	73,698	82,326	254,494	389,321	294,498	452,609	112.25	178.66
2023	130,043	52,066	115,354	107,843	145,229	343,348	732,669	435,181	887,790	137.61	324.75
2024[10]	121,141	44,139	154,940	133,289	160,018	414,448	1,136,055	458,587	1,290,995	132.51	440.41
Jan	10,446	4,164	119,518	10,710	13,939	35,095	807,531	39,259	927,049	12.28	337.07
Feb	11,778	4,541	124,059	11,855	14,912	38,545	846,076	43,086	970,135	13.23	350.29
Mar	11,904	4,786	128,845	11,854	14,655	38,413	884,489	43,199	1,013,334	12.83	363.13
Apr	11,204	4,242	133,087	12,305	15,669	39,178	923,667	43,420	1,056,754	12.79	374.31
May	13,474	5,012	138,099	13,914	16,937	44,325	967,992	49,337	1,106,091	14.10	388.41
Jun	11,284	4,112	142,211	12,838	15,597	39,719	1,007,711	43,831	1,149,922	11.55	399.96
Jul	12,087	4,521	146,732	13,122	16,205	41,414	1,049,125	45,935	1,195,857	13.11	413.07
Aug	12,465	4,253	150,985	14,361	16,870	43,696	1,092,821	47,949	1,243,806	13.49	426.56
Sep	12,578	3,955	154,940	14,238	16,418	43,234	1,136,055	47,189	1,290,995	13.85	440.41
Oct	13,921	4,553	159,493	18,092	18,816	50,829	1,186,884	55,382	1,346,377	15.27	455.68

[10] The 2024 statistics only shows the accumulated totals to October 2024.

Chart 2. REPS Charts on transaction between MiBank and Kina Bank.

This chart indicates the monthly volumes by type of cards used for payment and aggregate values in K’ millions for MiBank & KINA. 

 

NB: December 2022 monthly industry values (K’ millions) shown on chart 2 reflects an increase in value due to festive spending by MiBank customers. In 2024, industry values returned  to normal pattern. Transaction volumes for July are higher than June.

Payment Systems Department

12th November 2024