The RBA's Payment Systems Board Annual Report (1) found that Westpac, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank suffered a "number of difficulties" delivering consistent and reliable EFTPOS services to their customers in 2010-11.

What is at stake is the reliability of the retail payment system with $400billion spent annually.

"In light of these and other incidents, the Reserve Bank and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority are discussing possible approaches to strengthen the handling of any future operational disruptions to retail payments systems," the RBA says.

In contrast, the only independent provider of EFTPOS merchant services - Tyro Payments - delivered with its technology, multiple switches and data centres 100 percent system availability (2) to its customers.

Tyro Payments CEO, Jost Stollmann, said EFTPOS outages cause significant turmoil for consumers and businesses alike. An EFTPOS outage results in abandoned sales immediately affecting the retailers' bottom line.

Even a small retailer, loses hundreds of dollars in no time, not to mention the havoc and customer dissatisfaction.

"That is why Tyro has spared no effort to reduce the risks of failure of its EFTPOS platform," Jost Stollmann said. "It is also why over half of Medicare Australia's rebates through the EFTPOS system are processed through a Tyro payments terminal."

About Tyro Payments Limited: Tyro is Australia's EFTPOS innovation institution and is the first new entrant into the EFTPOS business in more than 14 years. Tyro holds an authority under the Banking Act to carry on a banking business as a Specialist Credit Card Institution (SCCI) and operates under the supervision of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Under this authority Tyro provides credit, debit, EFTPOS, gift and loyalty card acquiring and Medicare claiming and rebating services, but may not take money on deposit. Tyro's transparent payment solutions are uniquely merchant focused, enabling reduced fees, greater productivity, better cost management and a superior payment experience for consumers. Tyro is a wholly Australian-owned company with no external venture capital. The company has been fully funded by the Executives, Directors, independent and strategic investors. www.tyro.com

(1) RBA Payment Systems Board Annual Report 2010/2011: "In late November 2010, National Australia Bank (NAB) experienced operational difficulties originating in its overnight processing of direct entry payments. Efforts to catch up on processing caused further problems. This was followed by another, unrelated, problem with direct entry payments in April 2011 at NAB. In March, CBA experienced problems with its internet banking site, as well as its POS and ATM services, and in early May an operational difficulty at a data centre caused Westpac's eftpos, internet banking and ATM services to shut down for a morning."

(2) Tyro Annual Report to be released and posted 30 September 2011.

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