Australia's banking system is finally getting real about real-time payments
Five years on, the New Payments Platform is gaining momentum with the RBA pushing, fintechs innovating and legacy systems disappearing. But is it delivering?
Australia’s real time payments system, the New Payments Platform (NPP), has overcome a sluggish start and bank hesitation to become one of the most rapidly growing in the world - potentially threatening the revenue streams of established global payment schemes.
But it still faces questions - ironically one being whether it is too fast. Another criticism is that it is unreliable.
Launched five years ago with limited functionality, the NPP has consistently added new services and is now being turbo-charged by the planned shut down of a decades old, batch-based system which manages direct entry payments.
More than 100 banks, credit unions, building societies, fintechs and other organisations use NPP to support real-time payments for consumers, businesses and government agencies with close to 90 million accounts able to send and/or receive NPP payments.
