Paymark will begin to disable around 4000 Eftpos terminals in New Zealand, starting today, after merchants opted, or neglected, not to upgrade their devices in line with an edict to upgrade to the latest security standards. Around 650 businesses will lose access to the Eftpos network today, with the remainder affected over the next couple of months. The affected terminals represent around four per cent of the payment terminal fleet in New Zealand and account for 1.5 per cent of payment volumes. Merchants can reactivate Eftpos services by upgrading to a compliant terminal. Eftpos is a much more common payment method in New Zealand than Australia and average payment values continue to decline (to around NZ$30 at present) reflecting the use of Eftpos to make very small value purchases. Merchants have had 18 months or more to prepare for today's deadline. In Australia, there are no corresponding plans, though there will be a shift in liability for fraudulent payments to merchants in the second half of 2012 if payment terminals are not updated to cater to the present EMV standard, at least under policies outlined by MasterCard.