ONLINE ACTION PLAN

Last updated: 8 August 2008

Overview

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Online Action Plan describes our approach to delivering appropriate online services, what has been achieved so far and what initiatives are in train.

It has been prepared in the context of Government Online - The Commonwealth Government's Strategy (April 2000). The RBA has taken into account the Office for Government Online (OGO) publication, Government Online - Online Action Plan Guidelines (June 2000) and a checklist for updating such plans distributed by the National Office for the Information Economy (February 2001).

The Plan covers:

• key commitments to providing appropriate services online;
• the structure and functions of the RBA and the nature of its services; and
• the services which are already provided online and other services which might in time be provided online.

Further information about the RBA's Online Action Plan can be obtained from:

Head of Information Department
Reserve Bank of Australia
GPO Box 3947
SYDNEY NSW 2001
AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 2 9551 9800
Fax:    +61 2 9221 5528
E-mail: rbainfo@rba.gov.au

Key Commitments

The RBA is committed to the delivery of its services online, wherever it is appropriate and practicable to do so. In addition to online services, the RBA will continue to deliver some of its information services by hard copy publications, facsimile and telephone.

The RBA has over recent years taken a number of initiatives which are consistent with the Government's Online Strategy. The RBA introduced its website in 1997 and since then has moved progressively to make all its publications available online as well as in hard copy.

In 2001 Information Department was formed to be responsible for the co-ordination and oversight of the RBA's external information services, both electronic and printed, and the progression of a suitable electronic information system for the RBA's documents. A primary responsibility of Information Department is to ensure the timely and accurate dissemination of information, including through the RBA website.

With the increasing focus on online publication of information, a high level Publications Committee provides for senior management co-ordination of strategies and procedures relating to the RBA's online information services.

The RBA reviews regularly the presentation of its online publications by improvements to the functioning of the website and seeks wherever possible to expand online information services. Major overhauls of the website were undertaken in March 2001 and December 2001 to enhance the quantity and quality of information online as well as improve access to and useability of the site. The RBA conducts surveys of its information services and uses results from those as part of its ongoing efforts to ensure that the RBA website meets the needs of those using RBA information.

Structure and Functions of the RBA

The RBA is Australia's central bank. Its main responsibility is monetary policy. Other key roles are to maintain financial system stability and enhance efficiency of the payments system. In carrying out its responsibilities, the RBA is an active participant in financial markets and the payments system. It is also responsible for printing and issuing Australian currency notes.

As well as being a policy-making body, the RBA provides selected banking and registry services to Federal and State Government customers and some overseas official institutions. The RBA is wholly owned by the Australian Government, to which its profits accrue.

The RBA employed 926 staff at 30 June 2008. Almost 94 per cent of these work in its Sydney headquarters and Business Resumption Site with the remainder in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, London and New York. Note Printing Australia Limited (NPA) – a wholly owned subsidiary of the RBA – in Craigieburn, Victoria employs a further 257 staff. NPA manufactures Australia's currency notes and a range of other security products for domestic and overseas markets.

The structure of the RBA is based on groupings of related functions, as follows:

• Banking and Payments Group
• Corporate Services Group
• Currency Group
• Economic Group
• Financial Markets Group
• Financial System Group
• Audit Department
• Human Resources
• Information Department
• Secretary's Department

Information on the activities of these various groups and an organisation chart of the RBA are on our website.

The role and functions of the RBA are underpinned by various pieces of legislation. The RBA is a statutory authority, established by an Act of Parliament, the Reserve Bank Act 1959, which gives it specific powers and obligations. In terms of the Act, there are two Boards: the Reserve Bank Board and the Payments System Board.

The Reserve Bank Board's obligations with respect to monetary policy are laid out in Sections 10(2) and 11(1) of the Act. Section 10(2) of the Act, which is often referred to as the Bank's 'charter', says:

'It is the duty of the Reserve Bank Board, within the limits of its powers, to ensure that the monetary and banking policy of the Bank is directed to the greatest advantage of the people of Australia and that the powers of the Bank ... are exercised in such a manner as, in the opinion of the Reserve Bank Board, will best contribute to:

1. the stability of the currency of Australia;
2. the maintenance of full employment in Australia; and
3. the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia.'

Section 11(1) of the Act covers the need to consult with Government; viz,

'the Reserve Bank Board is to inform the Government, from time to time, of the Bank's monetary and banking policy.'

The 'charter' of the Payments System Board is defined in section 10B(3) of the Act as follows:

'It is the duty of the Payments System Board to ensure, within the limits of its powers, that:

The main 'service' which the RBA provides and which is considered appropriate for online delivery is, therefore, the provision of information on its economic and financial analysis, monetary policy decisions and operations.

Existing Online Services Provided by the RBA

The RBA has a wide range of customers for its information services, including governments and their agencies, the media, academia, the financial markets and individuals generally, both in Australia and abroad. Every effort is made to ensure that the website functions so as to assist the specific needs of these various types of customers.

Publications

All of the information which the RBA issues publicly is available, free of charge, on the RBA's website. All these publications are made available online at the same time as their public release in hard copy format.

For those publications which do carry a charge, there are order forms on the RBA's website and the orders can be effected by electronic funds transfer or by more traditional means, including by faxing a credit card order form.

To assist visitors who do not look at the RBA's website frequently, the site contains a considerable amount of information on the Home page including a range of website navigation tools and sections for news and forthcoming events which alert visitors to all new publications added to the site in the most recent few months and to those planned for publication in coming weeks.

The RBA's publications are published on the RBA's website and generally in hard copy format, and can be broadly categorised as follows:

• Annual Report of the Reserve Bank Board;
• Annual Report of the Payments System Board;
• the monthly Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin including articles and statistical databases;
• the half-yearly Financial Stability Review;
• quarterly Statements on Monetary Policy;
• speeches by the Governor, Deputy Governor and senior officers (including Opening Statements made before Parliamentary Committees);
• media releases;
• Submissions to Parliamentary Committees;
• Conference Volumes, being proceedings of the RBA's annual Economic Conference (the individual papers for which are published on-line at the time of the Conference);
• Research Discussion Papers;
• Council of Financial Regulators Annual Report; and
• various other publications, including those produced jointly with other government bodies (both Australian and overseas).

Other information services

Various other information services of the RBA are also provided online, on the website:

• e-mail service provides links to information newly published on the RBA's website;
• contact details for mail, fax, phone and e-mail, including a small number of centralised e-mail enquiry entry-points, from which external enquiries are co-ordinated and directed to the most appropriate area of the RBA to provide a reply:
  • rbainfo@rba.gov.au, for enquiries of any nature on any subject of relevance to the RBA;
  • ecpubs@rba.gov.au, for enquiries about Research Discussion Papers;
  • archives@rba.gov.au, for enquiries about the RBA's Archives;
  • recruitment@rba.gov.au, for enquiries about employment opportunities at the RBA;
  • nienquiries@rba.gov.au, for enquiries about Australia's currency notes;
  • museum@rba.gov.au, for enquiries about the Museum of Australian Currency Notes;
  • privacy@rba.gov.au, for enquiries or complaints about the RBA's privacy policy and practices;
  • registry@rba.gov.au, for customers with enquiries about the Commonwealth Government Bond Facility for Small Investors;
  • secretary@rba.gov.au, for enquiries under the FOI Act, including requests for access to documents.

These 'generic' e-mail addresses are checked regularly every day, and there is a co-ordinated administrative function behind them; thus, action in response to enquiries directed to the RBA's generic e-mail addresses is not dependent on the presence at work on a given day of any one individual member of staff. The RBA believes that this is a more customer-friendly, and efficient, approach to online enquiries than providing e-mail addresses of individual staff members.

• recruitment, including advertisements for current vacancies, and a direct e-mail enquiry address specifically for recruitment;
• links to various related sites including other central banks, certain other Australian Government sites (including links direct to specific Acts of Parliament), and a number of non-official sites; and
• an invitation to offer feedback about the site.

The RBA provides banking services to banks, a number of other central banks and specific Australian Government agencies but not the general public. These services have been provided online for some years, via either a dial-up electronic banking package known as Reservelink or via direct link. Reservelink allows customers to initiate financial transactions and enquiries from their offices and to transmit data files to the RBA and vice versa. Reservelink meets fully the security and privacy requirements of the Australian Government.

The RBA's website is consistent with the Online Information Service Obligations (OISOs), as provided for in GovernmentOnline - The Commonwealth Government's Strategy, and with the obligations of the Archives Act 1983, the Privacy Act 1988 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, and with the Guidelines for Commonwealth information published in electronic formats. These Guidelines are taken into account as part of the process of ongoing review of the website.

The RBA has endeavoured to ensure its website is compliant with the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) metadata standards. This helps ensure that the information on our website can be accessed readily through the Australian Government Entry Point – www.australia.gov.au - enabling streamlined access to online information and services from state and territory jurisdictions as well as the Australian Government.

Developments in the RBA's Provision of Services Online

In response to customer interest and in line with government policy, the RBA has established a range of secure banking services via the Internet. These new online services, which complement our existing initiatives to streamline cheque clearance procedures and prevent cheque fraud, include:

• bank account enquiries;
• reports on the status of cheque presentations; and
• high-resolution images of presented cheques and items behind credits deposited over RBA counters.

Due to the sensitive nature and high value of government payments, the RBA has no plans, at this stage, for value payments to be made via the Internet. These payments will continue to be made via ReserveLink or direct data link. However, the RBA continues to monitor developments in Internet security technologies which might enable value payments to be made via the Internet in the future.

In response to the specific needs of a number of Australian Government agencies, the RBA has developed a payment collection service, called Government EasyPay. Government EasyPay enables agencies' clients to make credit card payments via telephone or the Internet.