In a new initiative called Beat the Receipt, Bank of Valletta is offering customers the option to not get a printed receipt for card transactions effected through a BOV EPOS machine.

In its endeavour to increase its environmentally friendly measures, the bank has introduced an efficient process whereby a cardholder who effects a card transaction on a BOV EPOS machine will be given the option to proceed with the payment without printing the cardholder’s transaction receipt.

Through this simple process, the BOV EPOS machine will prompt the cardholder to select the option to either ‘print’ or ‘not-to-print’ the transaction receipt. “BOV strongly urges its clientele to ‘Beat the Receipt’ and select the no-print option,” it said in a statement.

EPOS transaction receipts are printed on thermal paper which, despite being a recyclable material, requires a higher level of energy and effort to be recycled than normal paper.

“We piloted this initiative during the height of the pandemic and was very well received by both merchants and cardholders. Besides the obvious advantage of reducing the use of tonnes of paper annually, most of which will end up in a landfill, this initiative will reduce the handing of receipts from the merchants to the clients at this time when everyone is still being very cautious about the spread of COVID-19,” said Franco Xuereb, Executive Electronic Banking Unit at Bank of Valletta.

“Cardholders will still have the option to get a paper receipt should this be required, but we are urging our customers to place the environment and their health at the forefront and refuse the receipt,” he asserted.

“We have also redesigned the receipt and reduced its size by 33 per cent, thus reducing paper usage. All transactions effected through BOV cards can be viewed through the Bank’s Internet Banking and Mobile Banking applications thus eliminating the need for the printed receipt.”