ePAL has announced that there has been a steady increase in eftpos transactions from April to May.

The company indicated that the volumes grew from 178.2 million to 180.7 million. The May 2011 volume was 17.4 per cent higher than May 2010 with the value this May up by 15.2 per cent on last year.

“Only once in over three years has the number of eftpos purchases exceeded 180 million but this level was almost broached in May,” ePAL said in the July 2011 eftpos bulletin.

“The 179.2 million transactions were well ahead of May 2010 and their associated value of $9,585 million has been exceeded only in the Christmas trading months of December 2009 and 2010.”

Meanwhile, ePAL recorded that 22.2 million eftpos transactions were made in April to access cash with a total value of $1,267 million. However, the May volume was higher than April but the value of the May transactions was slightly lower as the average value of May cash transactions dropped by $1.50.

According to the company, this reflected a trend of reduced demand for cash recently reported by the RBA, the growth in eftpos cash transactions has been modest of late although robust in comparison to other cash channels.

“The increasing popularity of eftpos is seen in the steady, and indeed increasing business being carried out on this payment network. eftpos continues to be the payment network of choice as shown by the 180.7 million transactions in May 2011,” the company said.