Speech Opening Statement to the Inquiry into Schemes, Digital Wallets and Innovation in the Payments Sector

Photograph of Ellis Connolly

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics
Videoconference –

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee.

The RBA has a mandate to promote the efficiency, competitiveness and safety of Australia’s payments system. We aim for a payments system that is both resilient and innovative.

In September 2025, the Parliament passed amendments to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 (PSRA). These amendments expanded the RBA’s remit to a broader range of payment systems and participants. These amendments are a key plank of broader payments regulatory reforms including the proposed licensing regime for payments and the digital asset reforms.

The RBA will consult in mid-2026 on the issues that should be prioritised under the amended PSRA. This consultation will include consideration of three-party card schemes, mobile wallets, ‘buy-now, pay-later’ providers and e-commerce platforms. The Committee’s inquiry is a timely opportunity to consider the role that these entities, and domestic and international card schemes, play in the Australian payments system. Our submission provides information in these areas that may assist the Committee.

We would like to highlight two additional initiatives that may be of interest to this inquiry.

First, the RBA is engaging with Treasury and the payments industry on the future design of Australia’s account-to-account payments system. This workstream supports modernisation and further innovations in account-to-account payments that will benefit Australia’s consumers and businesses.

Second, the RBA’s Project Acacia is exploring how new forms of digital money and financial infrastructure could support the development of tokenised asset markets in Australia. Project Acacia is being undertaken alongside industry, regulators and our research partners at the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre. The project has drawn strong interest from a wide cross-section of industry.

We are happy to answer your questions.