Payments System Board Update: November 2024 Meeting | Media Releases

At its meeting today, the Payments System Board discussed a number of issues, including:

• Assessment of the New Payments Platform. The Board reviewed the RBA’s inaugural assessment of
  the New Payments Platform (NPP) under the Prominent
  Payment Systems oversight regime. It considered the effectiveness of governance, the risk
  management framework and operational risk management of the NPP, operated by Australian Payments
  Plus. Members discussed the importance of continued focus on high levels of operational resilience
  and effective stakeholder engagement in light of industry’s intended migration of the majority
  of account-to-account payments to the NPP in the medium term.
• The RBA’s work to operationalise the Financial Market Infrastructure regulatory reforms. Members
  discussed the workplan for the RBA’s crisis response framework for clearing and settlement
  facilities. This included plans to release public guidance on clearing and settlement facility
  resolution by the end of 2025. Members also received an update on the initial resolution planning for
  domestically located central counterparties.
• Central clearing of Australian bond and repo markets. Members received an update on the feedback
  received from industry in the Council of Financial Regulators’ (CFR) public consultation. The
  Board discussed some of the policy challenges being considered by the CFR agencies. A report that
  summarises stakeholders’ feedback to the consultation and the CFR’s response is expected to
  be published in the first half of 2025.
• The annual review of compliance with card payments regulation. Members reviewed the compliance of
  card issuers and acquirers, and the designated card schemes, with the RBA’s interchange and
  surcharging standards and access regimes in 2023/24. There was assessed
  to be a high level of compliance with the RBA’s regulations.
• Improving the security of card transactions in the online environment. The Board continues to expect
  all relevant industry participants to support the portability of both scheme and proprietary tokens.
  Members welcomed AusPayNet’s progress in developing a technical standard to support token
  portability to promote security, efficiency and competition in the payments system.
• Enhancing cross-border payments. Members discussed the Australian payments industry’s progress
  on several priority cross-border payments initiatives. These include implementation of the Australian
  Competition and Consumer Commission’s best practice guidance for international money transfer
  providers, and the migration of incoming cross-border payments to the NPP’s International
  Payments Service. The RBA will monitor and report to the Board on the adoption of internationally
  harmonised ISO 20022 requirements for cross-border payments by the High Value Clearing System and the
  NPP by the end of 2027. Members emphasised that the timely implementation of these initiatives will
  enhance the cost, speed and transparency of cross-border payments for end users and help Australia
  meet its commitments under the G20 roadmap. Members particularly noted the importance of
  addressing challenges in cross-border payments in the region.