A $1 billion real-time payments network that will be backed by the Reserve Bank of Australia has been delayed until 2017, after five major stakeholders pulled back from the scheme.
The electronic New Payments Platform (NPP), which will be created by SWIFT and the payments provider Fiserv, has been dogged by delays – despite having the support of Australia’s four biggest banks, the National Australia Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ, as well as Citigroup, ING and several others.
Five of the financial groups that were initially involved in the planning (HSBC, Paypal, Suncorp, Bank of Queensland and Bank of America Merill Lynch) have now said that they will not sign up to fund the project at this time. These organisations may decide to re-enter the project at a later date, reducing the financial burden on the 12 that are already involved. In the meantime, however, failure to secure a commitment from all 17 firms has pushed back the NPP’s completion date for a further year.
The hold-up has also been attributed to individual banks lagging behind with their own technical overhauls. Once complete, every Australian organisation with a banking licence will be expected to connect to the NPP system, either directly or via another bank, which will not be possible until banks complete internal upgrades.
Nevertheless, those leading the NPP drive remain positive.
“We have reached a defining moment for the future of Australian payments,” said NPP steering committee chairman Paul Lahiff.
“The industry’s vision in response to the Reserve Bank’s challenge for faster, richer 24×7 payments is now well on the way to becoming a reality.”
Whitepapers
Related reading
2020 hailed “year of contactless” by payments study
By Richard Young The coronavirus crisis has caused a surge in mobile and contactless payments, driving consumers to make fewer but larger ... read more
Redefining remittances: Fintechs during coronavirus
By Daumantas Dvilinskas, CEO and co-founder, TransferGo According to new projections by the World Bank, remittances are set to decline by as ... read more
Crypto’s safe-haven status wavers amidst market crash
Perceptions that cryptocurrency performs autonomously from other markets is being questioned as bitcoin crashed by 50 percent on March 12. Market participants ... read more
COVID-19: our action plan
Dear reader, As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, we continue to hear and read unsettling stories from around the globe. At Payment Eye, ... read more
