By ANZ Worldline resumes Australian shooting industry payment services.
SIFA is pleased to report that ANZ Worldline has reversed their position of cancelling certain merchant services to businesses within the Australian shooting industry.
Following the merger, ANZ Worldline sent correspondence to Australian shooting industry businesses stating “Payment Solutions’ policy and Card Scheme Rules strictly prohibit the sale of weapons online to ensure that customers who purchase weapons attend in-store to provide appropriate licence and permits checks, as is required by relevant laws“.
To make matters worse, ANZ Worldline suspended the ability of businesses to transact using MOTO / internet payments across their entire business, not just for firearm sales.
SIFA embarked on a campaign to defend our industry as ANZ Worldline’s position was ill-informed and unacceptable. It affected loyal customers who had been banking with ANZ and using their merchant services for many years without issue, and it lacked any understanding of how the Australian shooting industry operates.
In correspondence recently received by SIFA CEO James Walsh, ANZ have now advised:
“Further to recent conversations between you and Shayne Elliott (CEO of ANZ group) regarding the provision of merchant facilities by ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions to merchants who sell firearms.
I am pleased to advise you that our joint venture partner, ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions, continues to provide Merchant facilities to ANZ customers in the firearms retail industry. In some cases this includes a combination of card-present and card-not-present services. However, ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions reserves the right not to offer these services to customers that do not meet their terms and conditions. As is the case with any merchant, regardless of industry, each merchant’s application is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
ANZ values the relationship with our regional and rural customers including the businesses that are members of SIFA.“
Throughout the campaign, SIFA highlighted the facts:
- Firearms sales are heavily regulated in Australia. Regardless of how a payment is made or received, every firearm sale or transfer must be transacted via a licensed firearms dealer. The dealer can only hand over the firearm in person after a suitably licensed individual presents them with a “permit to acquire” certificate issued by Police. Interstate and intrastate transfers are conducted on a “dealer to dealer” basis only.
- Licensed firearms dealers across Australia work in conjunction with commonwealth and state law enforcement agencies, making them a critical part of Australia’s robust firearms regulatory regime.
- Australia’s shooting industry and our strict regulations are designed around the ability of our industry to accept remote payments and securely freight items between licensed dealers.
- By cancelling services to our industry, institutions risk undermining Australia’s firearms laws, by forcing businesses to seek out other and often less secure payment methods.
- Over half (55%) of all licensed firearms dealerships in Australia are mixed businesses and are predominantly found in regional or rural locations. Withdrawing payment services from a firearm related business in a small town impacts the entire business, not just the firearm services.
SIFA would like to thank ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott and ANZ Worldline CEO Petr Ryska, for listening to our position and resuming essential payment services to affected businesses within our industry.
We also acknowledge and thank the shooting community who got behind our campaign and made representations to ANZ & ANZ Worldline, as well as Roy Bulter MP who made representations on behalf of affected businesses and worked with SIFA to achieve this outcome.
