At its meeting today, the Payments System Board discussed a number of issues, including:

• 
  The Bank’s Review of Retail Payments Regulation. The Board reviewed responses to the Consultation
  Paper published in May, particularly relating to dual-network debit cards and least-cost routing,
  interchange fees and the ‘no-surcharge’ rules of buy now, pay later providers. The Board
  expects to publish a Conclusions Paper and final Standards within the next 2 months. Members
  noted in their discussion that new technologies are making the payments landscape more complicated
  and the Bank’s powers to deal with some issues were limited. A number of these issues have been
  raised in the Bank’s submission to the Treasury’s Review of the Australian Payments System.
• 
  The assessment of the ASX clearing and settlement facilities against the Bank’s Financial
  Stability Standards. The Board approved the Bank’s 2021 assessment, which will be published after
  it has been provided to the Treasurer and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
  (ASIC). The Board also discussed the ongoing work of the Bank and ASIC examining the incidents
  experienced by ASX in late 2020.
• 
  Payment scams. Members were briefed on the growing problem of account holders being tricked into
  authorising a transfer of funds to a scammer, and the steps that banks and regulators are taking to
  combat this problem. They noted that wider use of the New Payments Platform’s PayID addressing
  system should help reduce the incidence of certain types of scam payments, by allowing the payer to
  check that the payee name matches their expectation.
• 
  Strategic priorities for the Bank’s payments policy work. The Board endorsed an updated set of
  strategic priorities, which will be included in the Board’s Annual Report to be published later
  in the year.
• 
  The performance of the payments system during the pandemic. Members observed that the retail payments
  system had again coped well with the recurrence of lockdowns in a number of states and territories
  and their impact on operational arrangements in financial institutions. They welcomed the use of the
  New Payments Platform by Services Australia and the Bank’s Banking Department to make timely
  COVID Disaster Payments, including on weekends. The ability to make these real-time payments is a
  welcome benefit of the significant investment by the Bank and the payments industry in
  Australia’s fast payments system.

The Board is meeting this afternoon with the Australian Payments Council.