Commonwealth Bank has launched PaidIt, a platform designed to help organisations manage payouts such as settlements, remediation payments, and refunds.
According to the official press release, PaidIt combines recipient verification, communications, and payment delivery within a single platform, with the aim of managing payouts end-to-end rather than through separate manual processes.
The launch coincides with Australia's planned phase-out of cheques by 2028, a change that is prompting organisations to reconsider how they handle payments in cases where a recipient's details cannot be readily confirmed. According to the company, organisations have historically spent considerable time and money manually locating and verifying recipients before releasing funds, at times relying on no more than a last known postal address.
Recipient matching and payments infrastructure
At the centre of PaidIt is a recipient matching engine that applies identity and account checks to determine which payments can be processed automatically and which require further review. The platform is built on Australia's payments and digital identity infrastructure, including the New Payments Platform (NPP), PayID, and ConnectID. Commonwealth Bank stated that the process, from a recipient initiating a claim to funds arriving in their account, typically takes minutes.
PaidIt was developed with x15ventures, Commonwealth Bank's venture-building unit. Regis Petit, Executive General Manager, Institutional Transaction Banking at Commonwealth Bank, said the service reflects an opportunity for organisations to rethink how they manage complex payouts as cheques are withdrawn, combining the bank's payments expertise with x15ventures' venture-building capability. Petit added that client interest in the platform so far has been encouraging, while noting it remains at an early stage.
Scale of unclaimed funds
Commonwealth Bank pointed to Australia's unclaimed money registers as an indication of the scale of the issue the platform addresses. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) currently holds approximately AUD 2.7 billion in unclaimed money, with further amounts held by state and territory governments.
Maja Enander, Managing Director of PaidIt, said managing payouts becomes more difficult without complete or current recipient information, which can leave organisations spending considerable effort and resources on payments that may take weeks, months, or years to reach recipients, with some funds ultimately going unclaimed. Enander also said that the aim is to help organisations manage this process with less complexity and greater confidence that funds reach their intended recipients.
Implications
The introduction of PaidIt reflects broader efforts within Australia's payments sector to prepare for a cheque-free environment and to use existing digital identity and real-time payment rails, such as NPP, PayID, and ConnectID, for institutional use cases beyond routine consumer transactions. Its development also illustrates how Commonwealth Bank is using its venture-building arm, x15ventures, to build products aimed at specific institutional payment challenges.
