On New Year's Day, BoQ's Eftpos card processing system jumped from 2009 to 2016. This led to payments being rejected at the point of sale because customers' cards were due to expire before the incorrect date on the bank's computer systems.

BoQ's Eftpos system has been run by Australian e-payments vendor Keycorp since 2006, when the two signed a six year deal worth A$14.4 million for the upgrade and management of the bank's entire fleet of terminals. Meanwhile First Data provides processing services.

In a statement on its Web site, the bank says it is working with both vendors to fix the problem but, four days after it began, the glitch is still affecting merchant customers.

In the meantime, a temporary fix lets merchants enter a code to force terminals to ignore the transaction date. Although this still leaves receipts date-stamped as 2016, merchant settlement and customer statements will record the correct details.