Media Release Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System

The Bank today released the 2022 Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) against the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI). The Assessment concludes that RITS ‘observed’ all relevant Principles as at 31 March 2022, except for the Principle on operational risk, which was rated as ‘broadly observed’.

RITS is Australia's high-value payments system, which is used by banks and other approved institutions to settle their payment obligations on a real-time gross settlement basis. The Assessment was independently prepared by the Bank's Payments Policy Department and approved by the Payments System Board.

The Assessment discusses material developments relevant to RITS that have occurred over the year to 31 March 2022. This includes the implementation of initiatives to support the continued operational stability of RITS. The Assessment recommends that the Bank complete work currently underway to improve and refine the metrics it uses to measure the operational resilience and stability of technology systems supporting RITS.

Background

The Payments System Board has responsibility for the safety and stability of payment systems in Australia. The Payments System Board's policy is that systemically important payment systems are expected to observe the PFMI issued by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the International Organization of Securities Commissions.

RITS is owned and operated by the Bank. The Bank considers RITS to be a systemically important payment system and has committed to conduct assessments of RITS against the PFMI. These assessments are produced by the Bank's Payments Policy Department, which is the functional area responsible for oversight of the Australian payments system.

For more information on the Bank's approach to assessing systemically important payment systems, see: Policy Statement on the Supervision and Oversight of Systemically Important Payment Systems.