12 months on, PayID still not completely implemented by Australia's big four banks
Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP) went live in February last year; the platform allows for the transfer of money from one person to another in near real-time, using an email address or phone number rather than the traditional BSB or account number process.
The NPP infrastructure was built by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), in consultation with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the National Australia Bank (NAB), the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and Westpac, which hold around 95 percent market share of the entire Australian finance industry between them.
The new platform was in the works for years; the RBA had originally announced its plans as far back as 2012, inviting input from industry to determine the most effective way of delivering on its plan to make real-time payments, among other objectives. The banks faced parliamentary scrutiny in October last year as part of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics review of the four major banks.