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Topic: Payments

The NPP is starting to realise its potential

Posted on by Marketing Team

We have been thrilled by the reaction to the recent article which broke the news about the New Payments Platform (NPP) collaboration between Cuscal and Assembly Payments. We’ve both been fielding lots of enquiries from companies keen to emulate Carsales and so we thought we’d write this article to tell you a bit more about how the collaboration works and the best way to bring the benefits of real-time payments to your customers.

We think the NPP is a fantastic opportunity for any e-commerce company that is sending large amounts of money around or just needs to move money fast. Whether this is large volumes of transactions (or just large transactions) the benefits are clear – immediate, verified payments with detailed descriptions will enhance customer experience and minimise enquiries.

What is the NPP and how do you connect?
The NPP is the new, decentralised payments infrastructure which allows participating financial institutions (including Cuscal and the RBA) to move money between each other in seconds, 24/7. To become part of the infrastructure (a ‘Participant’) is a lengthy, complex process and you are required to be an Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (as it’s a regulated environment and requires access to RBA settlement facilities). However, most companies don’t need to do this. They can get the same benefits, more cheaply and easily by connecting to one of the Participants.

What levels of connection and capability are there?
The second official level of connection to the NPP is called an ‘Identified Institution’. The collaboration between Cuscal and Assembly Payments is big news because Assembly is the first company that is NOT a financial institution to be officially recognised as an Identified Institution. This means Assembly can register and create PayIDs for others and offer NPP services to its own customers, like Carsales.

Complicated? It doesn’t have to be.
While the background, and some of the terms, are a bit complicated, actually using the NPP is getting easier. Most companies will connect through APIs. The New Payments Platform has recently published its API framework which enables third parties to get a greater understanding of the platform and what it can do, using a sample API Sandbox.

Each NPP Participant will support their own APIs based on the NPP API Framework. Cuscal has already released REST APIs, which is how Assembly accesses NPP and Osko services to move money in real-time between Cuscal and other financial institutions.

Using the NPP is even quicker and easier for those companies that don’t need to become an NPP Identified Institution but want the benefits that come with NPP and Osko payments. For example, Carsales is enabled for NPP services through the Assembly platform.

Which path is right for you?
It depends on what you want to do.

  • Talk to Cuscal if you want to become an Identified Institution, like Assembly, and offer PayIDs and NPP services to your own customers. This path will suit businesses such as financial institutions and payment service providers.
  • Talk to Assembly if you would like a full suite of multi-channel payment solutions including real time NPP payments, PayIDs, underwriting, fraud and KYC services. This path will suit many online businesses, especially corporate enterprises, marketplaces and ecommerce platforms.

If you’re confused as to which path is right for you, just get in touch with either one of us and we’ll steer you in the right direction!

By Nathan Churchward, Cuscal and Simon Lee, Assembly Payments

My key takeouts from our Curious Thinkers event

Posted on by Uberbrand

Bianca Bates and Leda Glyptis

We recently held our inaugural client conference ‘Curious Thinkers’ where local and international experts presented on the topics that are front of mind in the payments space. My key take out from the Conference was that now, more than ever, it is essential for financial services organisations to clearly understand their customers’ expectations. They then need to be able to respond quickly to those expectations while managing an increasingly complex compliance and regulatory environment.

Here are some other learnings which may help navigate the current landscape:

The importance of picking the right partners

Collaboration and partnering are essential to succeed in the current market. Leda Glyptis’s thoughts on partnership resonated with me. Leda highlighted the options available to financial institutions in this age of digital disruption and greater open-ness. I loved Leda’s tips on picking the right partner and which partners to avoid at all costs:

  • Vampires – companies that fundamentally undermine or steal our business
  • Cheese sandwiches – companies that add no value (this came from rowing, where you can tell the value of each rower by replacing them with a cheese sandwich and measuring the difference in boat speed)

Fraud prevention for the future

Nuno Sebastiao, the global CEO of our fraud partner Feedzai, outlined the capabilities of the Feedzai platform, including machine learning and AI. Nuno and his team’s presentations during the day reinforced our decision to roll out the Feedzai fraud solution. It is a best-in-class fraud monitoring tool that provides us and our clients with a holistic, and highly granular, view of each end customer. The ability to intimately know someone’s spending patterns, and so detect when something is out of character, will be crucial in preventing future fraud.

The role of regulators in a time of change

“Change is not new, of course… But what is unsettling for today’s financial institutions is the sheer pace of change.” Wayne Byres provided a timely and useful perspective on the challenges facing regulators and financial services companies today. In particular, he highlighted:

  • The role APRA plays role in promoting stability, but not protecting regulated entities or standing in the way of change
  • The necessity for many financial institutions to increase their technology budgets to allow new technologies while maintaining their current systems
  • APRA’s position on cloud usage, including safety and security

On the way to open banking

Scott Farrell, the Chair of the Australian Government’s Review into Open Banking, reminded us of the principles behind Open Banking: “to give customers more control over their data leading to more choice in banking and more convenience in managing their money.” Whilst many are concentrating on the compliance requirements that sit with open banking, we are really focussed on how we can enable some real growth opportunities for our clients in an open banking environment.

The ‘youthquake’ is coming – we’d better be ready.

Rocky Scopelliti outlined how the millennial generation views work, banking and the digital world. Two points which struck me in particular were:

  • Millennials are motivated by ‘purpose’ and ‘social equity’ more so than other generations.
  • Being online, or connected, is “as natural to them as breathing”. A great reminder of how crucial digital and mobile banking is to our future.

Innovation is over-used, but under-utilised.

We all talk about how important ‘innovation’ is, but if we’re honest, most of us don’t back up our words very well with concrete action. Charlotte Rush gave us practical, simple and scientifically validated methods to cultivate innovation. To turn this into action we then had a group ideation session on how to collaborate better to enable a seamless customer experience, from Cuscal to client to customer. We will be taking the best of these ideas forward in the year ahead.

Real-time payments have ramped up.

Now that all the major banks are live we’ve seen a 40% jump in New Payments Platform (NPP) transaction numbers between July and August. Adrian Lovney outlined the NPPA’s priorities for the coming years, including an expansion in reach, volume and capability. The ‘consent and mandate’ service will be particularly exciting. It will make direct debits simpler and more transparent, removing one of the major obstacles to account switching. It will also allow services like Osko’s ‘Request to Pay’ and pave the way for open banking. We will bring these innovations to our clients and their customers as quickly as possible.

How to lead in the digital age.

Stephen Scheeler emphasised how important it is for business leaders to understand the fundamentals of digital. If we fail to understand digital, we open the door to competitors that do (like the way Netflix rapidly overtook Time Warner). The points which stuck with me were:

  • The importance of data. Most companies only use about 5-10% of the data they hold on their customers, but it holds the keys to solving customer problems.
  • Be ‘obsessed’ with customer experience. Our customers buy things which solve their problems, if we don’t understand their difficulties we are taking them for granted.

The link between digital identity and open banking

Digital identity is rapidly evolving and there is no consistent global standard. Steven Bankston, from Visa, updated us on Europe’s leadership and outlined Visa’s plans for a global platform to incorporate digital identity into a seamless payments experience. What really struck me was the inextricable link between digital identity and open data. The interplay between the two will create both opportunities and threats in coming years.

As I reflect on the two days I’m hopeful that it has helped us to inspire closer collaboration with our clients and partners for the year ahead. We can only succeed if our clients succeed and I believe that our first conference has started some great conversations.

 By Bianca Bates. Chief Client Officer

Global Payments Innovation Playbook

Posted on by cuscal

The Global Payments Innovation Playbook is a collaboration between PYMNTS and Cuscal to examine the key pillars driving financial innovation in Australia, China, the European Union, India, the United Kingdom and the U.S. We have curated some of these regions’ most promising and impactful innovations in this report, all to disseminate the important lessons local success stories have to teach.

The playbook offers a glimpse into global innovators’ efforts to take eCommerce and mobile payments to new heights. This includes what they can show us about modern consumers’ shopping habits, and how businesses might incorporate other regions’ successes when looking to expand abroad.

Contents of playbook:

  • Executive summary
  • Rebirth: why European nations are adopting faster payments
  • North America finds its payments voice
  • China’s mobile banking system: All roads lead to Alibaba and Tencent
  • Thank India: a greenfield ripe for innovation
  • Australia’s new real-time payments environment

Unlocking the potential of real-time payment

Posted on by Marketing Team


A discussion on unlocking the potential of real-time payments with Adrian Lovney (NPPA), John Banfield (BPAY), our own Nathan Churchward & Phillip Finnegan (ACI Worldwide) at Curious Thinkers 2018 in Sydney.

Watch the video to see the panel discussion into the potential of real-time payments, as well as covering the competitive landscape, fraud and NPP access.

Faster Payments, Richer Data with Adrian

Posted on by Marketing Team


Adrian Lovney, CEO, NPPA at Curious Thinkers 2018 in Sydney providing Cuscal’s clients with information about faster payments and richer data.

Watch the video to learn the current status of the New Payments Platform as well as its plans and priorities for the future. Adrian delves into the NPP’s API plans and its ‘consent and mandate’ service which will lay the groundwork for servicing direct debits as well as the second phase of Osko ‘request to pay’.

NPP launches with 60+ finance brands, 40 via Cuscal

Posted on by Uberbrand

The New Payments Platform (NPP) was made publicly available today with customers of more than 60 banks, credit unions and building societies now able to receive real-time payments. 40 of these are connecting via Cuscal, greater than 50% of the total, and we will be connecting more later this year.

Financial institutions will roll out NPP services in their own time. Most of our clients have full functionality now (including registering a PayID and making and receiving payments via Osko) others will roll things out more slowly, in the coming days, weeks and months. New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) estimates that 4 out of 5 Australian bank accounts will be able to accept NPP payments within a few weeks of launch. All participating financial institutions are listed on the NPPA website.

Commenting on the launch of the NPP, Cuscal MD Craig Kennedy, said:
“Today really is a landmark day for banking and payments in Australia; the launch of a totally new infrastructure for payments happens very rarely. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to play a key role in the build and launch of the New Payments Platform and that so many of our clients can share this great day with us.

Australians have been rightly annoyed that it took so long for money to move between accounts at different institutions. Now, for customers at forward-thinking financial institutions that’s a thing of the past. It just goes to show that no matter how large or small your financial institution is, it can give you the latest and greatest payment innovations just as quickly as the biggest banks in Australia.”

The NPP is a brand new infrastructure for payments which has been collaboratively developed by 13 financial institutions, including Cuscal, to make payments faster, simpler and smarter for all Australians. These financial institutions mutually own New Payments Platform Australia Ltd (NPPA) which is responsible for building and operating the NPP. Cuscal MD Craig Kennedy sits on the board of NPPA.

The finance brands now connected to the NPP via Cuscal are:
List of financial institutions Cuscal is connecting to the New Payments Platfrom from launch

Media contact
Jake Waddell jwaddell@cuscal.com.au 0417 312 902

How the New Payments Platform works

Posted on by Marketing Team

This animation shows what happens when you make a real-time payment between two accounts at participating financial institutions, using a simple to remember PayID.

When payments are sent using a service like Osko by BPAYTM, which is designed to work seamlessly with PayID, over 99% of payments will be completed in under a minute and most within 15 seconds – providing customers with a quick and easy way to transfer money between accounts at participating financial institutions there from launch.

We are connecting more organisations to the NPP than anyone else – more than half of all those who will be live on Day 1.

Learn more about connecting to the NPP with Cuscal.

How fast is the New Payments Platform?

Posted on by Marketing Team

Cuscal is proud to be one of the financial institutions bringing the New Payments Platform (NPP) to Australia.

This video demonstrates just how fast a payment on the New Payments Platform is. It shows a live payment between an account at Teachers Mutual Bank account and SCU, using a mobile phone number as a PayID instead of a BSB and account number.

Using Osko® on the New Payments Platform, over 99% of payments will be completed in under a minute, most within seconds – giving people a quick and easy way to transfer money between accounts at participating financial institutions.

We are connecting more banks, credit unions and building societies to the New Payments Platform than anyone else – more than half of those using the NPP from day 1.

Learn more about connecting to the NPP with Cuscal.

Fraud and AI: what you need to know

Posted on by Uberbrand

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already having a significant impact on the way we do business today. From helpful chat bots guiding us through complex purchase journeys to detecting potentially fraudulent payments, AI has the potential to create seamless customer experiences while simultaneously processing large amounts of information.

Machine learning frees humans from the grunt work of data tracking and pattern analysis – it’s faster, more scalable and learns from past information. No wonder Gartner predicts that more than 40% of data science tasks will be automated by 2020.

So when it comes to balancing customer demand for real-time payments with secure fraud-mitigating authentication, AI is an effective enabling tool for fraud teams to focus their investigation skills in the best place to securely ensure the speed and rigour required for a real-time payment. And that’s why more organisations are exploring the use of AI, especially in the area of fraud.

What role could AI play in fraud prevention and detection?

Through machine learning, the complexity of big data really becomes useful. At Cuscal, we have partnered with Feedzai to provide an advanced risk management platform that will be core to protecting Cuscal clients from the evolving threat of fraud.

“When using Feedzai, banks have significantly improved fraud detection, reduced false positives and overall a better customer experience – outperforming leading non-AI solutions – that’s why banks like Citi and Capital One have backed Feedzai’s technology.” said Richard Harris, SVP Sales International from Feedzai.”

With so many more payment channels available – online, mobile, P2P – there are more points of vulnerability. More than ever, we need a complete view of customer activity across products, an integration of channels to improve the customer experience, and to make more data-backed business decisions.

How will AI strengthen existing fraud protection systems?

With AI’s ability to analyse complex data in real time, fraud teams are better equipped to predict fraud before it occurs and so minimise losses.  AI reduces some of the noise of large amounts of data to focus on the real threats.  As we prepare to launch the New Payments Platform (NPP) in Australia, we can expect to see digital transaction processing converge with analytics providing better insights. Machine learning will enable organisations to look at more data, from more sources, and make better predictions with less uncertainty.

Of course, bots could be working on both sides – and the next generation of AI-enabled fraud systems will also need to be prepared to tackle new and increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts and scams.

Every Australian financial institution connecting to the New Payments Platform (NPP) needs to consider their real-time fraud monitoring and ensure effective controls are in place. AI is likely to underpin best practice – checking every transaction in real time for anomalies and flagging suspicious activity for action by experienced fraud investigation teams.

Learn more about preventing fraud in a real-time world.

Fraud prevention: then and now

Fraud & AI Infographic

Learn more about preventing fraud in a real-time world.

By Michelle Trundle, Senior Manager, Fraud

Cuscal connecting over 50% of FIs to NPP

Posted on by Uberbrand

Person using the NPP to make an instant payment

Sydney, 26 October, 2017 – Today, the New Payments Platform (NPP) took an important step closer to an early 2018 launch as we passed a major checkpoint on the road to going live.

Each of the 13 shareholders of the NPP Australia Ltd has revealed which banks, credit unions and building societies they would be bringing live on Day 1. 29 financial institutions covering 39 retail banking brands will be connecting to the NPP from Day 1 via Cuscal – more than 50% of the total number.

Robert Bell (General Manager, Products and Service), said:

“Today is a significant milestone for Cuscal and our clients. Building the NPP infrastructure and then connecting to it has been a large and complex undertaking for everyone involved, no matter how big they are, so to pass these milestones is cause for celebration. We are very proud to be connecting such a large percentage of all financial institutions. It’s a real credit to the fantastic work of our Cuscal NPP Team and their counterparts at our clients and their core banking system providers.

“It demonstrates that large, medium and small financial institutions can all have access to the latest and greatest payment technology. Some of our clients connecting to the NPP have millions of customers and others have thousands, but all of them will be able to make and receive payments in real-time from the first day the NPP is publicly available.”

The list of financial institution brands connecting to the NPP via Cuscal at launch includes:

Bank Australia, Beyond Bank Australia, Big Sky Building Society, Australian Unity, Central Murray Credit Union, Catalyst Money, Illawarra Credit Union, Community First Credit Union, Easy Street Financial Services, Northern Beaches Credit Union, CUA, Credit Union SA, Defence Bank, First Option Credit Union, Ford Co-operative Credit Society, Goulburn Murray Credit Union, MyState, The Rock, Nexus Mutual, Orange Credit Union, P&N Bank, People’s Choice Credit Union, Police Bank, Police Credit Union, RACQ Bank, Comtax Credit Union, Security Credit Union, SCU, Select Encompass Credit Union, South West Credit, Firefighters Mutual Bank, Teachers Mutual Bank, UniBank, The Mac, Bankstown City Unity Bank, Reliance Bank, Unity Bank, Warwick Credit Union, WAW Credit Union.

Media contact
Jake Waddell jwaddell@cuscal.com.au 0417 312 902