Articles Archives

Cuscal appoints new GM, Product & Service

Posted on October 6, 2016October 27, 2023 by Rachael Shupe

Cuscal has appointed Robert Bell as General Manager, Product and Service. He will assume responsibilities on January 9 and will succeed Adrian Lovney who recently left to be CEO for NPP Australia.

Robert joins Cuscal from Big Sky Building Society where he has held the role of CEO for two years. Prior to that he held multiple senior level roles at ANZ, across Australia and Asia Pacific.

Commenting on the appointment, Craig Kennedy, MD said

“I am delighted that Robert is joining Cuscal – he brings with him both a client perspective, and extensive leadership experience in financial services across Australia and Asia Pacific.”

Cuscal is now fully PCI compliant

Posted on July 29, 2016July 31, 2024 by Rachael Shupe

We recently became the first Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADI) to become Payment Card Industry (PCI DSS 3.1) compliant throughout our whole business.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance is designed to protect customers’ card data information while it’s processed, stored or transmitted. As our whole company is certified it shows that we have one of the highest level of security controls in place for our systems and processes to securely handle sensitive data and protect our clients and their cardholders from breach or fraud.

Throughout the process, a cross-functional team, including a specially-formed PCI DSS project team, worked to enhance security controls across the business as well as raise awareness around PCI compliance to ensure that certification was not only achieved but continues to be maintained.

Acknowledging the milestone Adrian Lovney, GM Product & Service, said:

“While there are some newer Australian card processors who have PCI certification, there are very few banks of the size, complexity, and history of long operation, like Cuscal that have managed to achieve this.

(It’s) a momentous achievement, which reflects the tenacity, persistence, and sheer hard work of many people within the technology, project delivery, and business teams.”

Cuscal appoints new CIO and GM, Emerging Business

Posted on May 9, 2016February 1, 2024 by Rachael Shupe

Cuscal CIO, Brian Parker, has taken on a new role as General Manager, Emerging Business. In Brian Parker’s new role his focus will be on exploring emerging business opportunities, and translating these into deliverable opportunities for clients. Brian will also continue to be the executive lead responsible for the successful end-to-end implementation of the NPP for Cuscal and its clients.

Hemant Kogekar has been appointed as Cuscal’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the next 12–18 months. Hemant has worked with Cuscal over the past four years as a consultant and advisor and has over 15 years’ experience as a C-level IT executive in major Australian companies including Suncorp, Citibank and Franklins.

Commenting on the restructure, Cuscal Managing Director, Craig Kennedy said:

“The payments industry is currently seeing rapid innovation including the growth of digital payments, emerging concepts such as blockchain, and the rise of non-traditional players. This means that we are operating in an extraordinarily dynamic environment.

To make sure we remain at the forefront of payments innovation, while continuing to deliver a reliable service to our clients we have decided to create a distinct focus on emerging business opportunities in payments. We are confident this will give the best result for us and our clients.”

Mobile app now has biometrics and more

Posted on April 12, 2016July 31, 2024 by Rachael Shupe

We have recently enhanced the functionality of our white-label, full-mobile banking app to include biometrics (fingerprint login), overseas notifications and feedback form as well as enhancing some current features. The next release of extra functionality is due in April/May.

Users with an iPhone 5s and above can now sign in to the app using their fingerprint, which will be safely stored in the device. For clients which also have our Vigil Fraud Bureau Service the app will allow customers to notify us about overseas travel, ensuring their cards will continue to function normally while travelling.

Commenting on the release, Cuscal’s Head of EFT, Acquiring and Digital, Colin Sultana said:

“This latest release builds on the existing functionality, including NFC tap and pay which we were the first to introduce in the Asia-Pacific, with CUA. These latest enhancements make our mobile banking app the most advanced of any white-label solution in Australia and equal to or better than some of the big banks’ offerings.

This is a very exciting time for mobile payments in Australia with Apple Pay arriving late last year in a limited form after a deal with Amex, Android Pay launching in Australia soon and Samsung Pay likely to arrive at some point this year.”

The next release of functionality for our full mobile banking app is due in April/May 2016 and is currently scheduled to include:

The ability to block cards
New and improved look and feel to the current mobile apps

RFi interview: Ashley on mobile banking and payments

Posted on March 20, 2016July 31, 2024 by Rachael Shupe

As we jump feet first into 2016, RFi Group had the pleasure of sitting down with Ashley Williams, Cuscal’s Senior Manager – Digital, and someone right in the Cuscal workroom, to discuss progression in the mobile banking and payments apps space and what the latest is when it comes to digital wallets.

As General Manager of Product & Service at Cuscal Adrian Lovney stated in a LinkedIn Pulse Post early this year, 2016 is set to be the year mobile wallets go mainstream in Australia.

The announcement just before Christmas that Android Pay will arrive in Australia in early 2016 is big news for payments, but it’s also another significant step that’s slowly, but inevitably, taking mobile payments from niche to mainstream. There has been a lot of chatter about mobile wallets being the future of payments in Australia, but so far we haven’t seen many people actually use their mobile phones as wallets. 2016 is looking like the year that will change this.

RFi Group met with Ashley who went on to explain Cuscal’s sharp focus on providing superlative technical integration for their customers and are currently nothing short of delighted to be experiencing such a huge take up for the new product. With 41 of their clients signing up to The Pays for day one, the figures are accounting for roughly 90% of their card volume.

Providing these solutions for our clients means that the work we do for them now, puts them in a key position to be able to launch into other wallets as soon as they’re available. We are focused on that technical build, creating and facilitating the links into the schemes (specifically Mastercard, Visa and eftpos) and then into the three different wallet providers (Google, Apple and Android) – meaning phones can in effect become a digital wallet.

As well as managing the technical integration and back end ‘maze’ of complexity this project brings, Cuscal will be providing customers with marketing toolkits and training support to guide them through the adverting process.

And to help, they have some pretty stellar partners –

We’re collaborating with Google to ensure the campaigns are consistent across the market and offer a seamless customer experience. In terms of Cuscal itself, all 41 of our clients will be out in the market promoting and marketing from day one.

With all this change, we wondered, what can customers expect? Ashley is frank but fair –

Obviously mobile banking apps with contactless payments have been around for some time, and the payments part of the equation isn’t something new, what we do believe is going to change is the market awareness and public’s perception of payments – it is really set to shift dramatically.

Ashley goes on to cite the key differences for the Android Pay launch, compared to the way Australian financial institutions launched their mobile wallets in dribs and drabs. There is a clear plan to wait until everyone is ready and “all the ducks are in a row”, before they go live. “From a market perspective, it will be a huge coordinated push.” She says.

The concept and launch of the digital wallet itself, Ashley explains, is when things will get interesting. Cuscal’s view is that the ecosystem will change as pay providers (Google, Apple and Samsung) begin to partner with merchants and the in-out purchasing becomes a big component of the wallet. The loyalty of that ‘front of wallet’ card provider will move it from purely a transactional product, to an all-encompassing solution.

Other benefits lie, perhaps unsurprisingly, in data.

Because of the richness of the data we can receive, Cuscal’s FI customers will have full exposure to behaviour and trends of their card holders. They will have access to information such as default card choice or individual selection of card, which will deliver great insight to a bank regarding what their customers are doing.

This all provides banks with more information than they have ever had before and therefore the ability to reach out to their customers about card choice or behaviours. Other advantages can be found in the origination process of Android Pay. If a customer doesn’t have a banks mobile banking app, the functionality will prompt them to register. Again, providing yet another way for banks to increase the amount of customers they have using their banking app.

Ashley thinks this increased functionality is likely to take mobile payments to the masses.

With increased advertising and marketing from Google, as well as almost every Australian FI encouraging people to use these new offerings, the shift to mobile payments as the major, if not one day, sole, channel, is inevitable.

It is a huge shift, but we are at a stage now that it is not about acceptance, but more so, customer preference. It will need to work and it will need to work consistently, but we expect customer take-up to be rapid.

If it is in fact to become a comprehensive digital “wallet”, Cuscal sees the need for other parties to get one board and quickly. As seen in the UK, the rise in mobile tap and pay payments since its integration with transport for London’s Oyster network, was exponential. If case studies such as this are anything to go by, it is obvious that with the inclusion of an individual’s drivers licence, Opal/ Myki (travel) card, Medicare card, health insurance card, could really begin to speed things up and quickly. As Ashley quickly points out, the payments piece is only one component.

Ashley closes noting that Cuscal is in fact in a unique position compared to other affiliate parties.

“We are not just one institution, we are representing so many. Essentially we have 41 individual projects running seamlessly and in many ways, in conjunction, which is a huge achievement. For us to be able to match the market and to be there for day one of the launch, mobilising teams so quickly, is exciting and we really feel like it is going to make a huge impact.”

This article first appeared in the March 2015 edition of RFi Group’s Australian Retail Banker (which is no longer available on their website).

NPP overlays will give great customer experiences

Posted on March 4, 2016October 27, 2023 by Uberbrand

The New Payments Platform (NPP) will be arriving in 2017 and will be a catalyst for fundamental change in the way financial institutions, businesses and everyday people make payments.

Most people in Australian payments-focused companies are aware of this much, but at Cuscal we’re finding that people are a bit hazier on the finer details of exactly how the NPP will work. One part in particular which has been causing some confusion is exactly how the NPP’s overlay services work. What do they do? How do they interact with the NPP’s basic infrastructure? And, what do they offer beyond the promise of real-time payments?

Most people will experience the NPP through overlay services
The first thing it’s important to know about overlay services is that they’re going to be the public face of the NPP – the way that most people will experience it. Here at Cuscal we’ve started to think of the NPP like the internet and its overlay services as the websites, portals, apps and other online tools that make it exciting, interesting and useful.

As I mentioned in my last LinkedIn post, BPAY will be offering the NPP’s first overlay service, currently known as the Initial Convenience Service (although it will get a consumer-friendly name before launch). The ICS will be live from Day 1 and will add important extra functionality to the NPP by allowing:

People to make payments in close to real-time availability via mobile devices
Payments to be linked securely to documents (e.g. a remittance advice or tax statement)
People to request money from others (Payment requests)

The possibilities for overlay services are nearly limitless
What’s really exciting about the NPP’s overlay services though is what will be possible – just about anything! We think that one of the most valuable things that they will offer is the possibility to create great customer experiences and this is what we set out to explore in our new animation and white paper.

The animation gives a simple introduction to overlay services, explaining what they are, why they’re important and showing how some potential overlay services and might benefit businesses and consumers. Watch the animation.
The white paper goes into more detail about how the NPP’s basic infrastructure will work, the different types of overlay services which might be created and how this could all combine to create great customer experiences. Read the Cuscal Using the NPP white paper.

By Nathan Churchward, Senior Manager, Payments

2016: mobile wallets to go mainstream in Australia

Posted on January 21, 2016July 30, 2024 by Uberbrand

The announcement just before Christmas that Android Pay will arrive in Australia in early 2016 is big news for payments, but it’s also another significant step that’s slowly, but inevitably, taking mobile payments from niche to mainstream. There has been a lot of chatter about mobile wallets being the future of payments in Australia, but so far we haven’t seen many people actually use their mobile phones as wallets.

2016 is looking like the year that will change this – why?

Apple’s here, Android’s coming and Samsung won’t be far behind
Many Australian iphone users have been patiently waiting for the chance to use Apple Pay to make payments and it finally arrived in November last year as part of a deal with Amex. What has made the arrival of Apple Pay less of an event in Australia than in other countries is that it can currently only be used by people who have an iphone 6 or 6+ and an American Express card that’s issued by Amex (the Amex ‘companion’ cards, issued by banks, aren’t able to be used). This means that only a very small amount of iphones in Australia can actually be used with Apple Pay right now.

Google has announced that Android Pay will be here in early 2016 and it’s rumoured that Samsung won’t be far behind. Google, Apple and Samsung (aka “The Pays”) are already involved in the war for mobile handset prominence and the next frontline is the mobile wallet where The Pays will all be competing for prominence. The Pays are slick, work well and their functionality is continually being enhanced as usage increases. While Australian mobile banking apps are some of the best in the world, take-up from similar overseas markets (like the UK) indicates that The Pays are already having significant uptake within a short space of time after launch.

The Pays all have similar functionality, Android and Samsung are usable on many of the same devices, and all are likely to arrive in Australia at roughly the same time. Without many clear differences between the products they will be battling to win their place in the wallets of customers through their marketing and advertising spend.

Banks will be competing to be ‘top of wallet’
Just the same as banks currently compete to be the card of choice in customers’ physical wallets, the same thing will soon be happening in the mobile world. Although you will be able to store multiple cards in some mobile wallets, all of The Pays will have a default card installed in the app. So whichever banks are more successful at having their cards installed as the default card will earn the lion’s share of the income generated by processing the transactions through the wallets. For banks which aren’t the default card it will be much harder for them to overcome customer change inertia and get their card ‘top of wallet’.

This means that banks are likely to use their own considerable marketing budgets and strong customer relationships to try to get their customers to install their card as the default. This will increase the noise around the arrival of The Pays and increase customer uptake.

Fully integrated mobile wallets are starting to become a reality
Part of the reason that Australians continue to pay with their credit and debit cards instead of their phones is that at the moment mobile tap and pay doesn’t offer a compelling proposition over and above card tap and pay. Also, as banks generally earn the same amount if a cardholder uses their card or their mobile to make a payment, they have had no particular incentive to migrate people from cards to mobiles.

Mobile wallets will really take off when they offer something different, and better, than cards. Eventually we will see mobile wallets incorporate all of the cards in our wallets including ID cards, medicare and health insurance cards and travel cards like Opal and Myki (as is already happening in the UK). We’re starting to see the first stage of this in Australia with the incorporation of loyalty cards into mobile wallets (all of the Pays will have this capability, although not necessarily at launch). This means that people won’t have to remember to carry their various loyalty cards and their credit/debit card – everything will be stored in the same place, their mobile wallet.

The battle to be top of wallet has started and we don’t know who will win.
Now that the battle to be top of wallet has commenced, things will heat up quickly. And as many of the competitors have very deep pockets and aren’t used to losing, it’s likely to be long and fierce. The only definite winners will be consumers as banks, mobile companies and merchants improve the user experience and functionality of their offerings.

At Cuscal we are working with our financial institution clients to connect them to Android Pay from Day 1 (and the other Pays when they arrive). We want to ensure all of our clients can compete on a level playing field for their place in the wallets of the future.

5 lessons from Vegas on how to win in payments

Posted on November 24, 2015July 30, 2024 by Marketing Team

A few of my Cuscal colleagues, some of our financial institution clients and I have recently returned from a payments study tour to the USA. We started at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas (the world’s biggest fintech conference) where 10,000 delegates from 75 countries gathered to hear about the latest global trends in finance – 80 of them were from Australian companies. We then headed to Silicon Valley to chat with some global technology giants about the latest trends in payments and fintech, who were equally keen to hear from us about our early adopter digital and mobile market.

I’ve been back now for 3 weeks and it’s given me time to get the perspective necessary to strip away all of the glamour and bright lights and distil the main insights which are relevant to the Australian payments industry. My top 5 takeaways are:

1. Australia is a payments leader, but we need fintech companies to stay ahead.
While we think of the US as the home of technological innovation, Australia is arguably far ahead of the USA in several spheres. This is mainly due to Australia’s well-regulated banking environment, with far fewer financial institutions than the US, and a technologically-savvy population which quickly embraces new digital innovations. We have a long history of cooperation at industry level, aided by the big 4 major banks plus big 2 retailers, around rollout of new approaches like EMV (chip & pin) and NFC (contactless mobile payments) and also the presence of an active and interventionist regulator.
The combination of these factors has allowed us to collectively forge ahead, advancing the whole industry with new

70% take up of new payment forms like EMV and NFC
Sophisticated banking app functionality like self-service credit limits and PIN setting
Cross-industry plans underway to launch our faster payments system, the New Payments Platform (NPP) in 2017.

By contrast, the US has a highly contested payments industry with over 10,000 established banks. To counter this though, it also has a thriving, growing mass of thousands of well-funded fintech companies. This has caused a hotbed of innovative disruption in the USA that we monitor so we can use its best ideas to improve payments experiences back home.

2. The war of the wallet is upon us
‘The Pays’ (Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal) are all aggressively competing to be the dominant global payments wallet leader and Australia is next on their hit list. They are keen to come to Australia because:

It’s an early adopter market
With widespread smartphone usage in concentrated metropolitan areas
And a high percentage of merchants with the necessary infrastructure and skills to accept contactless payments

This makes us an ideal market for English-speaking technology companies to test their new products in 2016. Apple Pay has already arrived (albeit in a limited form as it can only be used on Amex issued cards, less than 10% of cards issued in Australia) and the others won’t be far behind.

The arrival of The Pays will be a major step towards the future of the ubiquitous mobile wallet and Australian financial institutions need to get ready (see what happened to Barclays in the UK when it lagged in accepting Apple Pay). Financial institutions need to weigh up whether to continue to invest in developing their existing mobile banking apps, integrate their apps with one or more of The Pays and/or associate themselves with leading merchants to drive volume commerce transactions, loyalty and gift programs.

Judging by the interest that some of Silicon Valley’s tech giants showed in us and our clients, next year is looking like a big year for mobile wallets in Australia.

3. Commerce within trusted social networks
“The magic is about making the transaction come together when people come together…” Deborah Liu, Facebook’s Head of Payments and Commerce @ 2015 Money 20/20

With 79% of Australians using the internet on a daily basis, and 93% of all social media users using Facebook, the average Facebook user spends an average of eight and a half hours a week on the site. These are staggering statistics and are creating tremendous (and growing) opportunities to drive B2B, B2C and P2P transaction volumes – especially now that most people’s initial reluctance to buy things on social media has passed.

Issuers and acquirers alike need to make sure they’re a part of this vast, sticky social media communities that consumers and small businesses are increasingly relying on to search, find, buy and sell products and services. If financial institutions are not connected to these platforms, they run the risk of being increasingly locked out of their customers’ lives as they spend more and more time, and more and more money inside the social media world.

4. Alternate lending will be game-changing
Australian financial institutions need to embrace the trend towards alternative lending business models and practices that are already transforming the USA, Australia and other markets. New types of lenders are currently the largest group of fintech Unicorns and Semi-Unicorns in the USA indicating that these well-funded global startups are likely to enter the Australian market in the not-to-distant future – joining companies that are already here like Thincats, RateSetter and Kabbage (in partnership with Kikka Capital). Companies that specialise in positive credit scoring, online marketplace lending, robo-advisory services that leverage credit data models are becoming serious alternatives to traditional banking services.

With $250 billion in consumer finance and small and medium business loans with Australian banks this is one that can’t be ignored.

5. Blockchain is going to get bigger and better
The increasing use of blockchain by financial institutions and governments is going to continue. Its use of a distributed ledger, system and record of transactions that any device, person or entity can connect to is incredibly useful and is likely to be able to operate autonomous marketplaces in the future. Its record of unit exchanges is also likely to be extended to support many other forms of value (eg telecommunication minutes, green credits) and data around ownership or sharing of assets (eg real estate, stocks). Although it’s relatively slow compared with a real-time payments system, its main benefit to businesses and consumers is that it is an inexpensive way to run transaction processing and record transaction data. As the Internet of Things (IoT) such as cars, wearables, connected homes and Amazon Dash Buttons utilise new technology instead of legacy systems, financial institutions will be able to use blockchain in many new ways yet to be imagined.

Because of the incredible pace of change of the global payments industry it’s a challenge for anyone to keep up. We’ve heard so much about the threat to financial institutions of fintech disruption that I expected to come back from the USA worried about how the exponential growth of innovative fintech companies could easily wash over and drown our payments ecosystem. Instead I’ve come back energised both by how well placed we are in Australia and also the massive opportunities that partnering with fintech companies can bring. The critical success factor for Australian payments-focused companies will be whether we band together to grow the overall payments pie or squabble to protect our own shrinking piece – what will your approach be?

Please let me know what you think about these opportunities and potential threats for Australia’s financial services industry below – especially if you were also at Money 20/20 and had a different take!

By Natalie Yan-Chatonsky, Innovation Manager, Payments

Digital disruption of mobile banking in Australia

Posted on November 12, 2015February 1, 2024 by Uberbrand

Within the span of just a few years, mobile technology has changed virtually every aspect of the world that we live in. That’s because the mobile devices that we now happily or dutifully carry around have evolved from basic communication tools into portals that we use to not only engage with others, but also manage countless aspects of our lives. Banking is no exception. Today’s consumers increasingly want to have all of their banking needs met from the palm of their hand. In fact, according to research from Roy Morgan the amount of Aussies that only use their mobile or tablet to do their banking has tripled in the last three years.

While that may seem like a narrow point at first glance, it actually underscores a much broader trend: these days customers strongly prefer using their mobile phones to do their banking over all other channels they have available to them. Meanwhile branches, ATMs, call centres and even internet banking are on the decline. A UBS Survey from August this year (“Is a bank in your pocket the next big thing?”) estimated that Australian banks can expect an 11 per cent reduction in branches as a result of mobile banking.

Consider, for example, that 80 percent of millennials would rather do their banking digitally than in person. For a generation that has grown up with smart phones and tablets, that typically means banking via mobile apps. Interestingly, according to one survey, 26 percent of respondents reported having switched banks just to get a better app.

What it means to bank in a mobile world
Recent research from RFi and Visa showed that digitally engaged customers (ones who engage with their bank via a mobile device) hold the most products with their MFI, are the most likely to approach their MFI if they want new products, and even have longer home loan tenures. Not surprisingly, that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing a spate of new advances in mobile banking technology, such as the introduction of:

Cardless cash from ATMs, which allows users to text message codes to each other, which can then be used to withdraw cash from nearby ATMs.
Mobile apps that include bill splitting functionality to make it easier for friends to share bills and request money owed. Apps like these divide group bills and then send texts to the relevant contacts in your phone, telling them how much they owe and providing a unique reference number. They also track payments so you can see whether or not you’ve been paid.
The ability to store loyalty cards on your mobile device and then simply scan it at the checkout, removing the frustration of not remembering (or being able to find) a different card for every store

Other recent innovations in Australia’s digital and mobile banking include the rise of biometrics and wearables. With the introduction of fingerprint technology, financial institutions are offering easier and more secure options for logging into their banking apps. Meanwhile the growth of smartwatches means that financial institutions are using wearable technology to give customers their financial information from their wrists.

With the arrival of the New Payments Platform, apps like these will give you the ability to do all of your banking in real time from your mobile, tablet or computer. If you can imagine being able to use your mobile to make secure payments to anyone in Australia in a matter of seconds, to apply for and open new accounts, and to set up limits and blocks on those accounts, then you’re beginning to get a sense for what will soon be possible.

Last but not least, many financial institutions are trying to perfect the omni-channel experience for their customers. That means they are using the data they already have about their customers to create seamless experiences no matter how, or on which channel, the customer interacts with them. While many banks are still enhancing the omni-channel experience, leading organisations are taking things a step further. The next evolution of better customer experiences will be the Internet of Everything, where transactions integrate seamlessly into consumers’ day-to-day lives. In that way, payments are not only virtually undetectable, but also add far greater value than the actual transaction itself.

To navigate the future you need the right partner
The evolution of digital and mobile banking in Australia is inevitable and is happening at break neck speed. For financial institutions that presents a number of challenges. For instance, developing new mobile applications is not only expensive, it’s also a potential money-trap. Today’s million-dollar investment could very well be obsolete in just a year’s time. The Commonwealth Bank’s executive general manager of digital channels, Lisa Frazier, said recently at the Agile Australia 2015 conference that its annual funding cycle couldn’t cope with their agile development needs. As a result, she had to institute monthly funding meetings combined with fortnightly risk and compliance catch-ups to get things moving quickly enough.

For most financial institutions that don’t have the scale of CBA, it’s important to find the right partner to help you navigate the challenges — one that’s building communities of interest that you can be a part of. When you do, you’ll not only benefit from economies of scale, but also wind up with a customised, agile solution that you can easily refine and enhance based on customer feedback. That means that getting to market becomes faster, easier, and cheaper, as well as more effective. In an age when the alternative is to lose your competitive advantage, it’s a compelling choice.

By Colin Sultana, Head of EFT, Acquiring & Digital

BPAY to offer NPP’s first overlay service

Posted on November 11, 2015July 31, 2024 by Uberbrand

As we race towards the launch of the NPP, the Industry Program has reached another significant milestone.

It’s exciting to hear that BPAY is creating the first overlay service, the Initial Convenience Service (ICS), for Australia’s New Payments Platform.

Due to launch in 2017, the NPP will facilitate faster, richer, more versatile payments in Australia, 24/7. Cuscal is one of the 12 original participants that are the architects of the NPP and will mutually own its infrastructure. While the NPP’s basic infrastructure, currently being built by SWIFT, will allow better payment experiences to occur the overlay services will actually make them happen.

Getting the first overlay service right is important to the success of the NPP overall and I think BPAY’s expertise will help in a number of ways:

Trusted partner. The launch of the NPP is only two years away, so working with an established partner which is trusted by banks, businesses and consumers is essential to keep things running on time. BPAY’s experience in collaboratively promoting a payment solution with all Australian financial institutions will help us get the ICS to market more quickly and smoothly, with a greater chance of speedy take-up.
Experienced at influencing consumer habits. BPAY has already been successful at moving the payment of invoices and bills to internet and mobile banking. This experience will be very useful in helping people understand, and then adopt, new concepts like payment requests and immediate payments. BPAY’s expertise will be useful in designing a well-branded ICS which resonates with users as well as an effective strategy for customer experience and shared industry marketing.
Familiar rules. All Australian financial institutions are members of the BPAY scheme and are used to working within its rules to develop payment interfaces; this should alleviate some potential implementation challenges.

BPAY’s solution for the ICS is a practical and sensible approach which will deliver more than the NPP’s Basic Infrastructure is capable of, without trying to be all things to all people. It will help to prove the potential of the overlay model and demonstrate that solutions don’t all need to be highly technical to solve customer pain points and deliver value to both payers and payees.

The ICS also deliberately leaves gaps which can be filled by additional overlay services over time, incrementally adding extra functionality to the NPP. This will be good for competition and help meet the objectives set out in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Strategic Review of Innovation in the Payments System (2012) that was the catalyst for the New Payments Platform.

The ICS is a straight-forward, low-cost solution which should ignite demand in the NPP – it’s a good choice for all of us.

By Nathan Churchward, Senior Manager, Payment Products

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