CEO’s corner

What to expect in 2026

2026 has started at an incredible pace. The New Year had barely begun before the consultation on the draft instruments to implement the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF) concluded on 5 January. In our submission, we emphasised our strong support of the objectives of the SPF given the importance of decisive policy action to address the harm caused by scams. However, we raised concerns about whether the framework is being implemented in a way that will support its intended outcomes, especially given unresolved operational design questions (e.g. around dispute resolution), ambitious commencement timelines, and the sequencing of supporting obligations and arrangements (e.g. dispute resolution, but also information-sharing).

That consultation was swiftly followed by the Inquiry into Schemes, Digital Wallets and Innovation in the Payments Sector, for which the deadline on submissions was 30 January. Our key points to the Inquiry were that:

• The regulatory framework needs to be consistent and coherent across the (payments, and wider digital) ecosystem, based on the principle of ‘similar activity, similar risk, same rules’. 
   
• The regulatory framework also needs to have appropriate flexibility and agility, which necessitates a balance between legislation, regulation, and standards-setting provided by bodies like AusPayNet.
   
• Any policy settings on payments economics need to be holistic, across all payment types, and taking account of benefits and investments as well as costs, and the appropriate balance of all three between stakeholders.

We can expect the policy arena to continue to be busy this year, with the following anticipated:

• The conclusions from the RBA’s Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, to be published by March.
   
• A consultation by the RBA on its new powers under the expanded Payment Systems (Regulation) Act (PSRA) thereafter, which will no doubt consider digital wallet providers, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) companies, payment facilitators, and payment gateways.
   
• A consultation from Treasury on Tranche 1b of the payments licensing reforms, potentially followed later in 2026 by a consultation on Tranche 2, which will consider common access requirements, industry standards-setting, and the ePayments Code.
   
• An update to the Government’s Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System. 

In addition, 2026 shapes up as a key year for several of our strategic initiatives: 

• The Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments Roundtable – which we facilitate and are a member of, alongside AP+, the RBA and Treasury – expects to consult on its draft vision for A2A payments, ahead of its publication, and then similarly consult on a roadmap to achieve the vision, ahead of its own publication.
   
• Our Industry Resilience Initiative will see the implementation of resilience solutions to support the use of cards and access to cash during a systemic crisis, and extend its analysis to additional critical points of failure, priority gaps and scenarios (including outages of RBA Banking and RBA Settlements).
   
• The Advanced Encryption Standard Program will move into Vanguard Industry Testing and its pilot phase.
   
• The Cheques Transition Program will continue its coordination of an orderly and planned shift away from the use of cheques, with cheques not being written after 30 June 2028, and needing to be deposited by 30 September 2029.
   
• The ISO 20022 Program will continue to pivot from successful migration, to the establishment and execution of an HVCS ISO 20022 message maintenance / version change framework.

All in all, 2026 offers the opportunity to shape the future of Australian payments and we look forward to working with our Members and stakeholders to ensure their confidence in that future and its role in underpinning Australia’s (digital) economy, its productivity, and its growth.

Transition program updates

For the latest updates on our Transition Programs, visit the project pages using the links below:

• AES Migration Program
• BECS Transition Program
• Cheques Transition Program

Cross-border payments

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) Plenary has released its 2026 Work Plan. The Plenary discussed its October 2025 progress report, warning that the G20’s targets are unlikely to be met by the end of 2027. Plenary members called for jurisdictional and regional action plans to address challenges and emphasised the need for continued engagement with the private sector to drive improvements.

In December, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published Bulletin No 119: Enhancing cross-border payments: state of play and way forward in December. The Bulletin notes that there has been modest progress at both the payment system level and in end user outcomes. It says the slower-than-expected progress reflects the complexity of payment platforms’ structures, inconsistent and intermittent private sector support, and the emergence of a more complex geopolitical and technological landscape. It also says the envisaged six-year timetable may have underestimated the time required to implement the necessary far-reaching and complex adjustments.

Locally, the RBA hosted a joint workshop with the BIS and the Institute of International Finance in October. Addressing attendees, Governor Michele Bullock said, “Australia is committed to making cross-border payments cheaper, faster, more transparent and more accessible under the G20 Roadmap.” She highlighted that the RBA and other regulators have been working together with the Australian payments industry to improve cross-border payment outcomes through some key initiatives, including adoption of the CPMI’s payments messaging requirements based on the ISO 20022 standard, and the International Payments Service (IPS) on the New Payments Platform (NPP).

Concluding her address, Governor Bullock said that collaboration between central banks, regulators and industry would enable the building of payment systems “that are safer, more efficient, and future ready”.

Economic crime

Earlier this month, AusPayNet released payment fraud figures for the 12 months to 30 June 2025 (FY25). The figures confirm that overseas card fraud remains a major challenge for Australia’s payments industry. 

While overseas spending represents only 3 per cent of total Australian card transactions ($434 million in FY25), it accounts for 52 per cent of all fraud on Australian-issued cards. In FY25, the overseas card-not-present (CNP) fraud rate was $10.75 per $1,000 spent – more than 10 times higher than the domestic CNP fraud rate (75 cents per $1,000 spent). 

Read our latest blog for more information on the ongoing challenge of overseas card fraud, and the work that lies ahead for industry to mitigate this threat.

eConveyancing Payments Industry Code

After a short delay with finalising initial applications for the Code, we are delighted to report that we have now approved our first set of eConveyancing Payments Code members. We are continuing to work with the remaining set of expected members over the coming weeks to finalise their applications, and our first Management Committee meeting was held on 12 February.

At this meeting, we considered the industry developments that have occurred since the Code was finalised, and continue to assess any necessary changes and updates to be made prior to the Code being made effective.

Stakeholder engagement

At this month’s Stakeholder Advisory Council meeting, we welcomed a new stakeholder, Domenique Meyrick, CEO of Financial Counselling Australia. Domenique replaced Dr Jeannie Patterson, who resigned from the Council in 2025, and will continue to ensure the payment needs of consumers are heard.

Also at this meeting, management provided updates and sought feedback on the following topics: 

• the Cheques Transition Program
• the BECS Transition Program
• the rollout of the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF)
• industry resilience.

The Council survey results were also shared with the group, and management was pleased to report that all stakeholders were satisfied with the stakeholder engagement strategy.

A clear action coming from the Council meeting was to engage more closely with the consumer groups (CHOICE, CALC and FCA) on the rollout of the SPF.

AusPayNet events

The AusPayNet Summit 2025

The AusPayNet Summit 2025 brought together more than 600 delegates at ICC Sydney in December for a series of insightful discussions involving industry leaders, government representatives, and regulators. We invite you to relive the payments industry event of the year through our highlights video.

AES Member Webinar

A webinar on the AES Migration Program will be held on Thursday, 26 February. Anyone employed by an AusPayNet Member organisation is invited to join us for a session delving into the strategy for implementing the migration of the Australian card payments system to the Advanced Encryption Standard, including the key milestones and timetable for the Program. The webinar will include insights from Dr Ramtin Shams, AusPayNet’s Migration Lead for the Program, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Riaz Hussain, our Head of Security and Standards.

New members

AusPayNet is pleased to have recently welcomed the following Members:

• Sympli Australia Pty Ltd as a PSP Member (effective 6 November 2025) and EC1 Code Operator (effective 24 November 2025)
   
• JCB International (Oceania) Pty Ltd as a PSP Member (effective 15 December 2025)

For more information on AusPayNet membership, please visit our website.