Media Release Review of Payments System Regulation

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is commencing its Review into Payments System Regulation. The RBA has today released an Issues Paper, inviting stakeholder views and evidence on which payments policy issues should be prioritised by the RBA. This followed amendments to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 to expand the coverage of the legislation to additional payment systems and their participants.

This Review comes at a time of significant innovation and change in the payments landscape, which is reshaping how Australian consumers and businesses make and receive payments. These developments have the potential to make payments more convenient and safer, facilitate the entry of new players and lower costs for end users. At the same time, they could give rise to potential concerns for competition, efficiency or financial safety in the payments system. This Review would help to ensure RBA’s payments system regulation continues to promote the public interest.

The Issues Paper sets out potential questions about:

• merchant choice of payment methods and providers
• account-to-account payments and competition with card payments
• mobile wallets, non-designated card networks and buy now pay later services
• cryptography and fraud prevention.

Stakeholders can provide written submissions by 7 August 2026. The evidence gathered through this consultation will inform the RBA’s prioritisation of issues and consideration of whether regulatory action may be warranted and, if so, what form that could take. The RBA intends to publish a list of regulatory priorities by the end of 2026 and commence further consultation on prioritised issues by mid-2027.