Treasury’s Strategic Plan for the Payments System: Consultation Paper

In February 2023, we responded to Treasury’s consultation on a Strategic Plan for the future of Australia’s payments system (the Plan).

In our submission, we supported the Plan providing “certainty on policy priorities and strategic directions for the payments ecosystem, while being adaptable to future challenges and opportunities”. We expressed the view that the Plan would only be useful if it was executable in a timely manner and its progress could be determined according to appropriate time-based or outcomes-based milestones.

For this reason, we suggested Treasury first establish a forward-looking vision of what the Australian payments system will look like in three to five years and how that differs from the current time. We submitted that, with this clear goal in mind, Treasury would then be able to determine the necessary policy priorities and initiatives, including new work programs to address identified gaps, to drive towards that vision.

We noted the conclusion of Treasury’s ‘Review of the Australian Payments System – Final report’ that the Australian regulatory architecture must progress in three aspects: enhanced payments leadership; aligned payments regulation; and simplified payments licensing. Our submission accordingly focused on the priority of ensuring the regulatory framework’s fitness for purpose and promotion of competition.

AusPayNet’s submission is available below.