(Bloomberg) -- Australian banks, payment service providers and other stakeholders have yet to arrive at a shared vision of the desired features of account-to-account payments as they transition away from existing infrastructure, a Reserve Bank official said.
“This is a foundational issue,” Brad Jones, assistant governor of financial system at the RBA, said in a speech in Sydney Thursday. “Once a consensus has emerged here, a roadmap with milestones can guide industry progress toward the ultimate objective.”
Jones said recent feedback from the industry suggests there’s insufficient coordination, planning and certainty regarding the transition away from the existing Bulk Electronic Clearing System framework, which is still used to process the majority of account-to-account payments including payroll and pensions. The industry has set a target date of 2030 to decommission BECS.
“A broad consensus on some key issues is now essential if Australia’s account-to-account payment system arrangements are going to be fit-for-purpose in the next decade,” Jones said. “Time is now of the essence.”
He also spoke about an ongoing review of retail payments regulations and whether there are further actions the RBA could take to put downward pressure on merchant card payment costs.
Given the shift toward electronic payments, card payment costs are an ongoing concern for merchants, as they are for consumers, Jones said.
“We want to see a payments system that is a hotbed of innovation and competitive tension, driving efficiency up and costs down,” he said. “And we want to see a payments system that is safe and resilient – one that Australians can rely on.”
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