Review of Payments System Regulation Executive Summary

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is commencing a review of payments system regulation (the Review). This Review comes at a time of significant innovation and structural change in the payments landscape, which is reshaping how payments are initiated, processed and settled. 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.

Reflecting these changes in the payments landscape, the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 (PSRA) was amended in December 2025 to expand the coverage of the legislation to additional payment systems and their participants.

This Issues Paper seeks stakeholder views on the issues that should be prioritised to promote competition, efficiency and safety in payments. Stakeholders have raised with the RBA a wide range of issues that may fall within the scope of the amended PSRA and that were not considered in the recent Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging.¹ In this Issues Paper, the RBA is particularly interested in stakeholders’ views on the following issues and whether there may be a case for the RBA to consider a regulatory response in the public interest:

• merchant choice of payment methods and payment providers, which may be impeded by emerging developments in technology and e-commerce, including the growing use of AI-enabled tools to initiate payments
• mobile wallets, non-designated card payment systems and buy now, pay later (BNPL) services
• account-to-account (A2A) payments, including promoting competition between card and A2A payments
• cryptography and overseas card payment fraud
• any other issues that may have implications for the design and implementation of the RBA’s payments system regulation.

In prioritising issues for further consideration, the RBA will assess how its payments system policy can continue to promote competition, efficiency and financial safety. A well-functioning payments system is characterised by strong contestability, effective interoperability and appropriate standardisation. Together, these features support entry and expansion by participants, enable end users to choose and switch between providers, and facilitate innovation. They can improve price and service outcomes while also strengthening the system’s resilience and its ability to withstand and recover from disruptions. Against a backdrop of ongoing changes in technology, business models and market structure, the Review will consider whether these underlying characteristics are being maintained and enhanced and, where necessary, whether regulatory action is warranted in the public interest.

Section 1 of this Issues Paper describes the background and process for this Review. Section 2 highlights issues relating to merchant choice in payments. Section 3 examines developments in card-based and other retail payment methods including mobile payments, non-designated card networks and BNPL services. Section 4 considers issues in A2A payments. Section 5 considers matters relating to the safety and resilience of the payments system including cryptography and fraud prevention and Section 6 invites stakeholders to raise any other relevant issues.

Interested stakeholders are invited to submit evidence in writing by 7 August 2026. Section 7 provides details on how to make a submission. The evidence gathered through this consultation will inform the RBA’s assessment and prioritisation of issues, and assist the RBA in considering 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.

Endnotes

1 For further details, see RBA (2026a), ‘Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging’, Conclusions Paper, March.