Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments Roundtable Update: September 2025 Meeting

September 2025

At the first meeting of the A2A Payments Roundtable held on Friday 5 September 2025 in Sydney, attended by representatives from AusPayNet, AP+, the RBA and the Commonwealth Treasury, Roundtable participants discussed the following:

The Roundtable’s purpose and governance. The Roundtable confirmed its primary purpose is to arrive at a common vision on the desired future state of A2A payments in Australia and a plan to achieve this vision. Participants discussed roles and responsibilities, decision-making processes, meeting organisation, record management, communication processes, and proposed deliverables. The Roundtable agreed to meet every four-to-six weeks.

The Roundtable’s plan for engaging directly with relevant stakeholders. The Roundtable recognised the importance of ensuring direct stakeholder engagement in the Roundtable process. Participants discussed high level engagement principles and a more detailed plan identifying the types of stakeholders to be engaged and the manner and time of such engagement. Relevant stakeholders include members of BECS and NPP, operators of other payments schemes, end-user groups, and other relevant subject matter experts.

Progress on the vision for the desired future state of A2A payments in Australia. The Roundtable welcomed the high volume of submissions to the joint consultation issued by AusPayNet and AP+ on the vision, and the diversity of stakeholder views represented in these submissions. Participants discussed key themes arising from the submissions and next steps. AusPayNet and AP+ confirmed that the aggregated and anonymised findings from the consultation will be made publicly available in October.

AusPayNet’s assessment of options for the future of the BECS system. AusPayNet provided an update on its work on options for the future of BECS, focusing on end-user readiness, viability, resilience, contingency, economics and trust. The Roundtable discussed the interdependency between the A2A vision, the assessment of options for the future of BECS, and the Move to NPP program, and the need for ongoing calibration between these activities. The Roundtable noted AusPayNet’s intention to review the target end-date for BECS by the end of 2025.

Update on the AP+ Move to NPP program. AP+ provided an overview of the various activities underway by AP+ and industry participants to support the transition of A2A payments to NPP in the areas of capability, capacity, reach, resilience, contingency and change management, as well as designing a bulk service to support the processing of large payment files across the NPP.

The expected timing of the Roundtable’s recommendations. The Roundtable aim to develop a proposed A2A vision by the end of 2025, and a high-level plan and roadmap to achieve that vision by mid-2026.

The next meeting of the A2A Payments Roundtable will be held on 16 October 2025.