CEO’s corner

The AusPayNet Summit, the Australian payments industry event of the year, will take place on Tuesday, 16 December in ICC Sydney’s Grand Ballroom, emceed by Effie Zahos, Finance Editor, Commentator and 9News Money Editor.

Highlights of the day’s program will include:

• The Annual Payments Address by Assistant Governor (Financial System) and Deputy Chair of the Payments System Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Dr Brad Jones
• An interview with the Hon Dr Daniel Mulino MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services
• A keynote and chat with Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC on the national threat landscape
• Sessions on account-to-account (A2A) payments, cheques, economic crime, resilience, and payments regulation
• International perspectives from the UK, India and the US
• A change in format for our traditional and ever popular debate, more on which below.

The Assistant Governor’s address comes at an important time, given:

• the first phase of the RBA’s Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, now expected to conclude in March 2026
• the passing of the Payments System Modernisation Bill, which will see the RBA’s extended powers under the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 take effect just after the Summit on 19 December 2025, subject to consultation thereafter
• the RBA’s second risk assessment on A2A payments, also due in the first quarter next year.

My interview with the Assistant Treasurer will pick up on some of those themes, as it focuses on progress and priorities under the Government’s Strategic Plan for Australia's Payments System, additionally including elements such as payments licensing, cheques and cyber security.

Our panels will deep dive on many of these topics. As we did last year, we will bring representatives from the four key stakeholders in A2A payments – Treasury, RBA, Australian Payments Plus (AP+) and AusPayNet – now meeting under ACCC authorisation as the A2A Payments Roundtable, to discuss the future of A2A payments. Discussion will cover the vision for A2A payments, options for BECS, AusPayNet’s review of the target 2030 end-date, and AP+’s roadmap for NPP.

We will also bring together the key players shaping the new payments regulatory architecture, with senior leaders from Treasury (James Kelly, Deputy Secretary Markets Group), ASIC (Kate O’Rourke, Commissioner) and APRA (Dr Sean Carmody, Executive Director, Policy and Advice Division) discussing payments licensing.

On economic crime, Lynda McMillan, the Chair of our Economic Crime Forum will moderate a panel exploring the nexus between fraud, scams and money laundering.

Other sessions will cover resilience in payments and an update on the cheques transition. And all of this will be informed by international perspectives from: Joe Garner, Chair of the UK’s Future of Payments Review; Ritesh Shukla, MD & CEO of India’s NPCI International Payments Limited; and Nick Stanescu, EVP and Chief Executive of the US’s FedNow®.

Finally, we are shaking up the format of the much-loved end to our Summit: the Big Debate. It’s so popular that we thought, why have only one topic when you can have three? So, for the first time this year, we’ll have three separate debates, in a face off, or head-to-head format on: real-time cross-border payments, AI in payments, and stablecoins in the payments system. I’m confident that the audience will really enjoy the format; no doubt the debaters will have fun with it too!

An event like this is only made possible through event partners and I’d like to thank: our principal sponsor, Bolt Group, ACI Worldwide, American Express, Argenti, Cuscal, Fitzgerald Jenkins Recruitment, Foregenix, Message Exchange, PAX Technology Australia, Swift, Thales and TNS, who will once again host our end of day networking drinks.

In conclusion, the team has again put together an exciting and engaging agenda. As always, we’ll also have opportunities to network ahead of winding down for the end of the year. I very much look forward to seeing you there.
 

Account-to-account payments

Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) and Australian Payments Plus (AP+) have released findings from their joint Public consultation on the future vision for account-to-account (A2A) payments, capturing insights from across the payments ecosystem on how Australia’s A2A payments system should evolve to meet future needs and expectations.

The consultation, launched in July 2025, sought input on the current and future state of A2A payments. A total of 68 submissions were received from financial institutions, payment service providers, industry associations, technology vendors. businesses, government agencies and end-users.

Submissions reflected strong support for developing a shared industry vision to guide future industry investment in capabilities and services that deliver innovation and efficiency across the ecosystem.

Stakeholders emphasised that the future system should deliver on key objectives such as accessibility, capability, cost-effectiveness, reliability, safety, standardisation and governance – ensuring payments remain secure, resilient and inclusive. Many also noted the need for a balanced approach to implementation that recognises potential trade-offs between these goals.

The release of the findings completes Step 2 in a six-step process to define Australia’s A2A payments vision and roadmap. These insights will inform the ongoing work of the roundtable meetings between AusPayNet, AP+, the RBA and the Commonwealth Treasury. The next step in the process is the development and release of a draft A2A vision for further consultation with stakeholders in 2026.

The full findings report is available on the AusPayNet website.

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

Payments reforms

Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging

In August, AusPayNet responded to the consultation paper for the RBA's Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging.

Given the breadth of our membership base and the nature of the policy issues and regulatory measures being considered, we recognise that the impact of this Review will vary significantly across different groups within the payments ecosystem and its end-users. In this context, our submission focused on highlighting key considerations that should inform the RBA’s assessment of regulatory options from an industry-wide perspective, as well as the key areas of concern or insights that members felt had not been sufficiently addressed or considered in the consultation paper. 

These considerations included:

• Scope and sequencing: We reiterated that conducting this review ahead of the reforms to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 (PSRA) creates risks of competitive distortion across the broader payments ecosystem, and may limit the RBA's access to critical data required for evidence-based policy decisions.
• Changes to interchange fee regulation: Some of our members raised significant concerns about the evidence base supporting the proposed reductions to interchange fee caps, as well as the potential competitive and economic implications of such significant changes that do not seem to have been adequately accounted for.
• Implementation: There were concerns that the proposed implementation timeframes will not be sufficient for the complexity and scale of changes required under the proposed policy package.
• Transparency design: While the industry generally supports greater transparency for merchants, further work on the design of any disclosure requirements would be beneficial to ensure that they drive meaningful competition and change.

AusPayNet looks forward to continuing its engagement with the RBA as it progresses this review over the coming months, with the aim of ensuring that the regulatory framework achieves its policy objectives while maintaining the payments system’s ability to support Australia's economic activity through secure, reliable and innovative payment services.

Regulating cash distribution

In August, we also responded to the consultation paper released by the Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) and the ACCC on a regulatory framework for cash distribution in Australia.

AusPayNet supports the Government’s commitment to ensuring that cash remains a viable means of payment for all individuals who want or need to use it. We recognise that the relative decline in cash use over recent years has not diminished the important role that cash continues to play in Australia’s society and economy.

In our February 2025 submission to Treasury’s consultation on mandating cash acceptance, we noted that achieving this policy objective will crucially depend on the ongoing availability of efficient, reliable and sustainable cash access and distribution arrangements for both consumers and businesses. We therefore welcomed the CFR and ACCC’s work on establishing a regulatory framework to help support the long-term sustainability of the cash distribution system in Australia.

Our submission expressed support for a regulatory framework that is designed to be transparent, flexible and proportional, and is underpinned by the proposed policy principles of access, sustainability, resilience and efficiency. To best achieve the intended policy outcomes, we encouraged the regulators to further consider some aspects of the proposed framework. 

These included:

• Reviewing the suitability of an explicit ‘public interest’ objective, given the need to effectively balance public interest needs with commercial viability in a structurally declining market.
• Prioritising the development of crisis resolution and contingency planning arrangements and clarifying expectations around pricing terms for cash distribution services.
• Ensuring coordination with related policy initiatives, noting that cash distribution, acceptance and access are all important to supporting the viability and efficiency of cash as a means of payment.
• Continuing to collaborate with the industry on addressing any challenges related to cash distribution and access, including through existing industry coordination mechanisms.

ATM Access Standard

The ATM Access Standard, which replaces the ATM Access Code, formally commenced on 1 October 2025. The Standard is now available on the AusPayNet website.

Cross-border payments

The FSB remains fully committed to achieving the Roadmap targets under its new Chair, Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, who was confirmed at the FSB Plenary in June. The Chair set out his priorities in a letter to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in July.

The FSB published its G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments ‘Consolidated progress report for 2025’. This report acknowledges the achievements to date but also notes that progress has not been advancing as quickly as needed. The causes include misaligned anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) compliance controls and privacy rules, inefficient implementation of capital controls, limited transparency for end-users, interoperability challenges and insufficient competition in certain market segments.

The report further notes that whilst comprehensive policy recommendations to remove obstacles to better cross-border payment experiences have been made, jurisdictional implementation of those recommendations remains essential to achieve faster, cheaper, more accessible and more transparent cross-border payments. To that end, the FSB will intensify efforts to drive implementation of the policy recommendations issued under the Roadmap and support jurisdictions in overcoming barriers.

In October, we published the latest edition of the Cross-Border Payments Round-Up, a biannual newsletter providing updates on the progress of the G20 Roadmap and the progress of CPMI and FSB industry taskforces. Read the newsletter on our website.

Economic crime

RBA Governor Michele Bullock's recent speech (3 October) reinforced key themes from AusPayNet's Payment Safety-by-Design paper, emphasising the need to embed resilience and safety into payment system design to maintaining trust in digital payments.

AusPayNet hosted a Card Not Present (CNP) fraud and scam mitigation roundtable on 27 October, bringing together Economic Crime Forum (ECF) and Issuers and Acquirers Forum (IAF) representatives to address stolen card credentials being used to enable fraud, scams and money laundering.

The latest ECF meeting was held on 18 November in Canberra, hosted by the Australian Federal Police, aligning with the week of national law enforcement meetings. 

The ECF is advancing two key operational workstreams:

• Operation Simpson, a joint public-private initiative, is making significant progress combating money mule networks and referrals for police disruption.
• Operation Murtoa is addressing critical gaps in how financial institutions refer suspected proceeds of crime to authorities, with a pilot program underway.

The ECF welcomed the recent announcement that legislation will be put before Parliament to restrict high risk services including crypto kiosks, a measure the Forum has been calling for over the past three years. ECF and state police research has demonstrated no legitimate use case for these terminals, which charge extremely high fees and have been predominantly used by elderly scam victims and for money laundering purposes, making them fundamentally different from regulated online crypto exchanges that cooperate with banks.

eConveyancing Payments Industry Code

Onboarding of new eConveyancing Payments Industry Code Management Committee (eC1) members has begun as we continue to receive applications. We have provisionally scheduled the first meeting of the eC1 to be held before the end of this year. Matters before the inaugural MC meeting will include:

• simple Regulation and Procedure amendments including the notification process for grandfathered connections
• identifying complex Regulation and Procedure amendments to be addressed in early 2026
• procedural issues like Code Compliance Committee Rules
• pathway to the Effective Date for the Code.

Stakeholder engagement

AusPayNet's Stakeholder Advisory Council met again in August. At this meeting, we welcomed one new stakeholder, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO). Along with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), ASBFEO have been added to represent the voice and payments needs of small businesses in Australia. Management provided updates and sought feedback on the following topics: Cheques Transition Program, BECS Transition Program, Policy Priorities, the CNP Fraud Framework Review, the ATM Access Standard, and Industry Resilience.

The Council has been in place since 2021 and plays a significant role in AusPayNet's governance framework. To achieve our purpose of "Confidence in payments for all" we feel it is critical to engage with all stakeholders of the Australian Payments System and make sure their voices are heard at our Board level.

AusPayNet events

The AusPayNet Summit 2025

Tickets to our annual payments summit in Sydney on Tuesday, 16 December have been selling fast, so if you haven’t booked yours, please do so quickly. You will find full event details, including the event program, speaker profiles and registration form on our website.

Intersekt – Industry Roundtable

FinTech Australia invited AusPayNet to host a roundtable on payments regulation reform and its impact on fintechs in Melbourne on the eve of the Intersekt 2025 conference (16 September). Treasury, APRA, RBA and ASIC representatives joined AusPayNet for a discussion with a number of our Members and prospects, with the session being very well received.

AES Member Webinar

We hosted a member webinar on the AES Migration on 12 November. The webinar introduced the AES Technical Blueprint, which described the target state for the migration and an overview of what this means for our Members and how it fits with both Australian and International standards.

New member portal

Recently we launched new-look login and home pages for our Member Portal.

The new Member Portal homepage now includes:

• Upcoming Member meetings and events
• All operation changes and a link to the relevant memo
• Statistics and submissions due
• Regulations changes
• Important notes
• Two factor authentication (2FA).

The new page gives Members easy access to all our incident plans, current Member list, and change dates and fees.

New members

AusPayNet is pleased to have recently welcomed the following Members:

• Retail Payment Solutions Pty Ltd as an IAC Member and COIN Member (effective 25 August)
• Barclays Bank Plc, Australia Branch as an HVCS Member (effective 9 September)
• Property Exchange Australia Ltd (PEXA) as a PSP Member (effective 8 October) and eConveyancing Member (effective 13 October)
• Segregated Payments (Australia) Pty Ltd as a PSP Member (effective 27 October)
• Automatic Data Processing Ltd as a PSP Member (effective 29 October)

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