Australia's national payments system releases Open Banking plan

The NPP currently allows consumers to send money to another person or business with an Australian bank account almost instantly, something that previously took up to three days. New changes outlined in the roadmap include plans to move into payments initiated by someone who is not the account holder, eliminating “pain points”. The new changes would see consumers gain more control over their direct debits, allowing for easy tracking of which businesses are making deductions and cancel them if they wish.

The Federal Parliament’s 2016 banking inquiry noted that when using ‘PayID’ shifting a customer’s regular outgoing and incoming payments will be as simple as changing the relevant link. With Open Banking set to be fully introduced in Australia from February 2019, switching banks looks to be simpler than it’s ever been before.

The roadmap also includes structured data capabilities, which will support business to business payments and commercialisation opportunities such as payroll and superannuation. The NPP boasts a 24/7 service and as of mid-October 2019 was processing 750,000 payments worth USD 750 million each day.