eftposThe most mature domestic scheme in the region. Australia's regulator has backed it with a least-cost routing (LCR) requirement, now extended to Google wallets and to Click to Pay online (rolling out from early 2026).Australian Payments Plus (AP+) (formed by the 2022 merger of eftpos / BPAY / NPPA) · since 1980Debit acceptance costs about 20% less with least-cost routing on. LCR is enabled on 70% of in-store payments and 30% of mobile wallet payments. Scheme fees fell 22% for issuers and 5% for acquirers in May 2025 (AP+, 2025). Surcharging is banned from October 1, 2026, on all designated networks (eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa, across debit, prepaid, and credit), not just on eftpos (RBA, Conclusions Paper of the Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging, March 31, 2026).
Global registry · Asia-Pacific · Oceania
Australia Payment systems
17 systems listed.
CurrencyAustralian dollar (AUD)
Domestic schemeeftpos
RegulatorReserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
Leading payment methods
Cards (eftpos, Visa, MC)WalletsBNPL (Afterpay)PayID / NPP (A2A)
E-commerce shares
Cards · 45%Wallets · 30%Buy now, pay later · 12%Account-to-account · 10%Other · 3%
Cards + PayID. Domestic eftpos debit coexists with Visa and Mastercard (least-cost routing, pushed by the RBA to benefit merchants). PayID, the alias service on the NPP instant rail (2018), is becoming the norm for P2P and bills, while PayTo enables instant direct debit mandates.
Cash share≈8% of payments by value (RBA, 2025)
Block's acquisition of AfterpayUS$29B (2021)
The birthplace of modern BNPL (Afterpay, bought by Block for US$29 billion). Contactless card payments have been the norm since the 2010s, and cash now accounts for about 15% of payments by number and 8% by value (RBA, 2025).
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Payments in AustraliaPayments in Oceania and CanadaPayments in Central AsiaPayments in South Asia outside IndiaPayments in Southeast AsiaPayments in Japan and KoreaAccepting payments in Australia and New ZealandAccepting payments in Indonesia and ThailandAccepting payments in Japan and South KoreaAccepting payments in Southeast AsiaPayments in Asia: super-apps, public rails, and cross-border QROpening a new market: the payments playbook
Card schemes
eftpos (Australian Payments Plus)Australia's domestic debit scheme and the centerpiece of least-cost routing. Australian debit cards are co-badged eftpos plus Visa Debit or eftpos plus Debit Mastercard, and the RBA pushes acquirers to route to the cheaper network by default. The RBA's Conclusions Paper (March 2026) requires eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, and large acquirers to publish their fee schedules. LCR is the mirror image of European co-badging: the acquirer, not the cardholder, chooses the application. That is the opposite regulatory choice from Article 8 of the IFR.Australian Payments Plus (AP+) (formed by the 2022 merger of eftpos, BPAY, and NPP Australia) · since 1984
Instant payments
New Payments Platform (NPP)Australia’s ISO 20022 instant rail, with PayID addressing, the Osko overlay, and PayTo mandates. It is also a rare documented case of a market withdrawing the target shutdown date for its legacy ACH (BECS) because the replacement was not mature enough.NPP Australia (subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus (AP+)) · since 2018about 1.82 billion transactions at an annualized rate (AP+/RBA, 2025–2026)
NPP (New Payments Platform)Australia’s instant rail, with native ISO 20022 messaging and rich data, set to absorb bulk flows as BECS winds down.NPP Australia (subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus (AP+)) · since 20181.86 billion transactions worth more than A$2.4 trillion in 2025; more than 115 connected banks, institutions, and fintechs; more than A$7 billion a day; more than a third of all Australian account-to-account transfers (AP+, 2025–2026).
OskoOverlay service that brings the NPP to bank customers: in Australia, customers see Osko, not the NPP.BPAY Group (AP+), as an overlay on the NPP · since 2018
PayToDigital payment mandates on the NPP, designed to replace BECS direct debit, with real-time authorization and cancellation in the banking app.NPP Australia (AP+) · since 2022
PayIDNPP alias service: a phone number, email address, ABN (Australian Business Number), or organization ID replaces bank account details, and the payee’s name is shown before the payment is confirmed. That name check makes it Australia’s main safeguard against fraud on bank transfers.Australian Payments Plus (Australia’s domestic payments company, which brings together eftpos, the New Payments Platform, and BPAY.) · since 20185 million PayIDs registered as of July 2020 (Australian Payments Plus)
Clearing and settlement
BECS (Bulk Electronic Clearing System)Australia’s ACH was supposed to be phased out in favor of the NPP. The withdrawal of the target date in late 2025 makes it the go-to counterexample for forced migrations of bulk rails.AusPayNet · since 1994June 2030 decommissioning target date withdrawn in December 2025 (AusPayNet, 2025)
BECS (Bulk Electronic Clearing System / Direct Entry)Australia’s long-standing ACH, originally slated for shutdown in June 2030. AusPayNet WITHDREW that target date in December 2025 because there was no A2A roadmap, and the RBA published an updated risk assessment in March 2026, so the deadline is open again.AusPayNet (Australian Payments Network)
BPAYAustralia’s national bill payment scheme, using a biller code and a customer reference number, initiated from online banking or by phone. Its payments clear on a deferred net basis and settle the next morning in RITS. It is a bill payment rail, not an instant rail, which is why it coexists with the NPP rather than being replaced by it.BPAY Pty Ltd (ABN 69 079 137 518; the scheme is now presented by Australian Payments Plus, which has taken over the bpay.com.au domain.) · since 1997more than 95,000 billers and more than 140 participating financial institutions (Australian Payments Plus, 2026)
Wallets
BeemAn Australian P2P app for paying friends back, splitting bills, and requesting payments, since extended to gift cards, cashback, and BPAY bill payments. It runs not on the NPP but on users' Visa and Mastercard debit cards. That design choice sets it apart from Osko and limits it to cardholders.Digital Wallet Pty Ltd (publisher of the app, formerly marketed as “Beem It”; the service came under the control of Bolt Group, an Australian fintech, on June 30, 2026)More than 3 million Australian users (Beem, beem.com.au, 2026).
Buy now, pay later
ZipAustralia’s second-largest installment payment provider after Afterpay, built on a point-of-sale credit model. Market overviews that still describe it as a Middle East player through Spotii are out of date: Zip now reports only Australia, New Zealand, and the US.Zip Co Limited (listed Australian company; its US operations are built on the business it acquired, which traded as Quadpay.) · since 2013
Central bank digital currency
Project AcaciaPilotAustralian program on wholesale digital money and the settlement of tokenized assets: consultation closed in December 2024, followed by a testing phase with real-money pilots. Strictly wholesale, it is not a retail CBDC. Make that distinction before building any business case around an “eAUD,” a name often confused with the earlier pilot of the same name.Reserve Bank of Australia / Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (steering committee bringing together the Australian Treasury, APRA, and ASIC.) · since 2024
Other
Interchange framework: RBA standards / Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging (Australia)AnnouncedThe world’s most interventionist jurisdiction on cards, and the model other regulators copy. The package bans surcharging on debit, prepaid, and credit cards on the designated networks (eftpos, Mastercard, Visa) from October 1, 2026, lowers domestic interchange caps on the same date, and requires networks and large acquirers to publish their fee schedules. The cap on foreign-issued cards and some of the transparency requirements take effect only on April 1, 2027. Two innovations stand out: capping interchange on foreign cards, which neither the EU nor the UK has done in binding law, and banning surcharging outright after 20 years of the opposite policy.Reserve Bank of Australia, Payments System Board · since 2003Conclusions Paper published on March 31, 2026 (phase 3 of the Review of Retail Payments Regulation): the domestic debit and prepaid interchange cap drops to 8 cents per transaction, or 0.16% for percentage-based rates; the domestic consumer credit cap drops to 0.30%; domestic commercial credit stays at 0.80%; and a new 1% cap applies to foreign-issued cards acquired in Australia. The 6-cent and 0.12% levels in the July 2025 consultation were NOT adopted (RBA, Conclusions Paper, March 31, 2026).
Australian check clearing (Australian Paper Clearing System)Wind-down written into law, with separate end dates for issuing and accepting checks. Readers need to know the instrument has an expiry date and plan to migrate the remaining flows.AusPayNet (under a federal government decision)Institutions stop issuing checks on June 30, 2028, and stop accepting them on September 30, 2029 (Treasury/AusPayNet, Nov. 2024).
ConnectIDA digital identity broker built on Australia's payment rails. Users prove their identity by having a trusted organization, in practice their bank, vouch for their data, and ConnectID does not store the data itself. The rollout is gradual, with CBA and NAB among the first banks to provide attestations. It is the identity product that the operator of Australia's domestic schemes aims to monetize alongside payments.Australian Payments Plus (formed by the 2022 merger of eftpos, BPAY, and NPP Australia; ConnectID is accredited by the Australian government as an identity exchange)
RITS (Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System)Australia’s RTGS system, where final settlement takes place in central bank money. It receives large-value payments from two upstream systems, HVCS (a SWIFT closed user group) and Austraclear. Each morning at 9 a.m., it settles on a deferred net basis the batches from the retail systems: BECS, the card schemes, and BPAY. Any institution that wants to settle directly in Australia must hold a settlement account there.Reserve Bank of Australia (the central bank is owner, operator, and overseer, with separate reporting lines for oversight and operations.) · since 199893 members at the end of 2010, including 71 settlement account holders: 56 banks and 15 other institutions (CPSS/BIS, Red Book, 2011)