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

• 
  The Bank’s Review of Banknote Distribution Arrangements. Members discussed the
  long-term decline in the use of cash for transactions and the pressure this was placing on the cash
  distribution system. As cash is likely to remain an important payment method for the foreseeable
  future, members agreed it was important that the community retained good access to cash withdrawal
  and deposit services. More broadly, the Board will continue to monitor access to cash services and
  trends in the use and acceptance of cash, including through the Bank’s Consumer Payments Survey
  to be conducted again next year.
• 
  Recent government reviews and inquiries dealing with payments issues. Members discussed the
  recommendations in the Treasury’s Payments System Review and the recent Parliamentary committee
  reports on digital payments and mobile wallets and on Australia as a technology and financial centre.
  The Bank will continue to work with the Treasury and other members of the Council of Financial
  Regulators on policy or regulatory initiatives stemming from these reviews.
• 
  Disclosure of new reliability statistics by retail payments providers. Members
  welcomed the increased transparency about retail payment service reliability. They observed the first
  quarter of data shows significant variation in outcomes across individual services and providers. The
  Bank will monitor trends in these data and engage with individual institutions as necessary about
  their operational challenges.
• 
  ASX’s response to the recommendations in the Bank’s 2021 assessment of the ASX clearing and
  settlement facilities against the Financial Stability Standards.
• 
  The Bank’s 2021 assessment of LCH Limited’s SwapClear service against the Financial Stability
  Standards. In Australia, SwapClear is considered systemically important, clearing around
  90 per cent of centrally cleared Australian dollar over-the-counter interest rate
  derivatives. Reflecting this importance, the Board welcomed LCH Ltd’s plan to extend its
  operating hours in early 2022 to cover Australian business hours. The assessment will be published in
  early December.
• 
  Card payments regulation. Members reviewed the compliance of card issuers and the designated card
  schemes with the Bank’s interchange standards and access regimes in 2020/21.