Payments System Review Conference Sydney, 29 November 2007

As part of the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2007/08 review of the reforms to Australia's payments system, the Bank co-hosted a conference with the Centre for Business and Public Policy at the Melbourne Business School. The conference was held in Sydney on 29 November 2007.

The first half of the day comprised two sessions. In the first, Professor Jean-Charles Rochet from Toulouse University presented a paper that examined competition between payment systems and the role of interchange fees in this process; and Dr Alan Frankel from Lexecon presented a paper that explored whether concerns about interchange fees could be addressed other than through the direct regulation of these fees. In the second session, the Bank presented the results of the cost and usage studies it had undertaken as part of the review. For each of these three presentations there were two discussants, followed by a period for general discussion.

The afternoon took the form of an open discussion moderated by Professor Ian Harper from the Melbourne Business School. Professor Harper invited participants to nominate issues for this session ahead of the conference. On the basis of submissions, a number of introductory speakers were selected by Professor Harper to open the discussion on each topic, after which contributions from the floor were invited.

A conference volume, containing conference papers and a summary of discussion, was published on 17 April 2008.

Conference Papers

Session 1A

Competing Payment Systems: Key Insights from the Academic Literature 76KB
Presentation Slides 196KB
Jean-Charles Rochet, Toulouse University

Session 1B

Towards a Competitive Card Payments Marketplace 218KB
Presentation Slides 1.2MB
Alan Frankel, Lexecon

Session 2

Payments in Australia – Costs and Use
Carl Schwartz, Reserve Bank of Australia

- Payment Costs in Australia 350KB
- Household Payment Patterns in Australia 757KB
- Presentation Slides 57KB
- Supporting Material

Lunch

Lunchtime Address 122KB
Chris Hamilton, Australian Payments Clearing Association

Session 3

Paper for RBA Payment Systems Review Conference 54KB
Leigh Clapham, MasterCard

Introductory Comments on Interchange Fees 47KB
Paul Rickard, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Interchange Fees 17KB
Douglas Swansson, Coles Group

Session 4

Access and Innovation 93KB
Geoff Bebbington, National Australia Bank

Access and Innovation in the Australian Payments System 43KB
Manuel Garcia, Indue Ltd