RBA A2A Payments Vision: A Readiness Guide for Australian PSPs

Updated July 2026

On 8 July 2026, the Account-to-Account (A2A) Payments Roundtable published the final A2A payments vision report, setting the long-term direction for Australia’s A2A payments system. The report contains a one-sentence vision statement and does not itself amend a statutory reporting return, filing deadline or technical reporting specification.

That is exactly why the vision is worth an hour of a payments compliance team’s time. The account-to-account payments vision addresses one of the three challenges AusPayNet cited when it removed the June 2030 BECS target: the need for a shared vision. The other cited challenges were the availability and customer adoption of alternatives and a more complex geopolitical and operational risk environment. BECS remains Australia’s primary A2A system, and the RBA says the vast majority of account-based pull payments continue to use it. The document sets direction. Separate reform streams are at different legal stages: the AML/CTF changes commenced in 2026, while Treasury’s PSP licensing and prudential proposals remain exposure drafts.

This guide reads the vision the way a practitioner who files Australian payments returns would read it: as a map of where the next round of rules is heading, and a prompt for the work a payment service provider can put in motion now while the roadmap is still being written.

Related reading: RBA RITS Assessment 2026: settlement access for Australian PSPs

The dates that anchor A2A payments readiness

The vision sits inside a cluster of reform milestones. Kept in one place, the calendar shows why 2026 is the year the direction and the obligations start to converge.

• 1 August 2025 – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) granted authorisation, with conditions, for the Roundtable process that produced the vision.
• 9 October to 6 November 2025 – Treasury consulted on the first tranche of exposure-draft legislation for a new payment service provider licensing framework.
• 16 December 2025 – the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet) removed the June 2030 target end-date for the legacy Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS).
• 10 March 2026 – the RBA published a risk-assessment update recommending an options analysis, including upgrading BECS, before locking in future account-to-account infrastructure decisions.
• 12 March to 14 April 2026 – Treasury consulted on the full Tranche 1 package of payment service provider licensing and prudential legislation, superseding the narrower Tranche 1a consultation.
• 31 March 2026 – the reformed Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) obligations commence for businesses already regulated by AUSTRAC.
• 1 July 2026 – the AML/CTF reforms extend to newly regulated sectors and to new virtual-asset services.
• 8 July 2026 – the A2A payments vision is published.
• Across 2026 – the A2A payments roadmap is developed. Treasury says it will consider Tranche 2 matters, including common access requirements, an industry standard-setting body and review of the ePayments Code.

How the vision was made, and by whom

The Roundtable comprises AusPayNet, AP+, the RBA and Commonwealth Treasury. ACCC authorisation AA1000690, granted with conditions on 1 August 2025, permits specified participants to discuss and share information to develop a common industry vision and to reach in-principle agreement on the desired future state. The ACCC expressly states that the authorisation does not cover implementation; a separate authorisation application may be required.

The final vision is a strategic industry document, not legislation or a legislative instrument. The current ACCC authorisation covers discussion and in-principle agreement rather than implementation. The five outcomes and six characteristics should therefore be treated as planning reference points, not as an enforceable reporting standard.

The RBA describes the direction in a single sentence: a trusted account-to-account payments system that meets the evolving needs of consumers, businesses and government agencies, supporting resilience, competition, innovation and productivity in the Australian economy. Everything else in the document unpacks what “trusted” has to mean in practice.

Five outcomes, six characteristics, and the obligations they rhyme with

The vision names five outcomes that A2A payments must deliver for end-users: safe, reliable, affordable, easy to use, and inclusive. It then sets six characteristics the system itself must demonstrate to deliver those outcomes: secure and protected; highly available and resilient; feature and capability rich; accessible for providers; commercially viable; and appropriately standardised. Governance, the document adds, should be clear, collaborative and adaptable, so the system stays a trusted national asset operating in the public interest.

None of these words attaches to a specific reporting return, and the vision does not claim it does. Read them as a practitioner, though, and each characteristic lines up with an obligation that is either already in force or about to change. That alignment is the practical value of the document, and it is an interpretation worth stating plainly instead of dressing it up as regulatory text.

“Accessible for providers” concerns access and participation arrangements for clearing and settlement infrastructure. Under the RBA’s current ESA policy, a non-ADI that is an actual or prospective provider of customer payment services may apply for an ESA where it needs to settle clearing obligations; approval remains at the RBA’s discretion. Separate payments-licensing reform work is considering common access requirements for non-bank PSPs.

The vision goes beyond the outcome-level labels and sets detailed principles for each system characteristic. Under “secure and protected”, it states that the system and individual payment providers must incorporate AML/CTF monitoring and that fraud and scam measures must align with applicable frameworks such as the Scams Prevention Framework. Under “appropriately standardised”, it identifies areas for industry alignment including payment-message data and field definitions, integration formats, payer authentication, and payee name and account validation. These are non-binding vision-level expectations, not amendments to the underlying legal regimes. The document defines ISO 20022 but does not prescribe it as the required standard, and it does not refer to the RBA’s merchant-card surcharging reforms.

Why the A2A payments vision changes none of your reporting obligations today

This is the point most likely to be lost in a fast read, so it is worth being blunt. A vision statement is not a reporting change. The consultation that fed it is not a reporting change. The summary of consultation feedback published alongside it is not a reporting change. The 8 July vision release does not itself amend RBA statistical returns, AUSTRAC transaction-reporting rules or scheme reporting requirements. Any change to those obligations must be verified against the relevant legal instrument, reporting instruction or scheme rule.

The roadmap is the next implementation-planning artefact, not itself a source of statutory or regulatory obligations. The RBA says the roadmap will define the way forward for achieving the vision, including high-level deliverables, implementation timelines, and associated governance and coordination arrangements. Execution is expected to require industry governance and coordination mechanisms subject to ACCC authorisation. A roadmap item should not be treated as an enforceable reporting requirement unless a later legal instrument, regulatory requirement, scheme rule or contract gives it that effect.

The Roundtable has said the roadmap will be developed during 2026 through structured mechanisms to seek input from banks, payment service providers, end-users and other stakeholders. A team that wants a say in sequencing, and in how any future data or resilience expectations are scoped, gets that say by engaging those mechanisms while the sequencing is still open.

The BECS-to-NPP transition the vision is meant to unblock

The vision is easier to understand once you see the operational problem it was built to solve. Australia’s final A2A vision identifies three current clearing streams: the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), the High-Value Clearing System (HVCS) and the New Payments Platform (NPP), with funds between paying and receiving financial institutions settled through the RBA. The retail migration issue discussed here principally concerns BECS Direct Entry use cases and the modern alternatives capable of replacing them.

In November 2023, after a three-year industry consultation, AusPayNet set June 2030 as the target end-date for the BECS framework, meant to concentrate effort on migrating to modern alternatives. On 16 December 2025, it removed that target. AusPayNet Chair John Brogden said the majority of BECS members no longer believed the industry could hit a June 2030 end-date. Three obstacles were cited: the absence of a shared vision for the future of account-to-account payments; insufficient availability and customer adoption of alternatives to BECS for direct debits and bulk payments; and a more complex geopolitical and operational risk environment than when the target was first set.

The first obstacle is the one the 8 July 2026 vision directly answers. AusPayNet and AP+ said they were working with the RBA and Treasury through the Roundtable to shape a shared vision and a roadmap, both expected in 2026, with the NPP described as the industry’s strategic account-to-account system and the focus for investment. Read in that light, the vision does real work. It addresses one of the conditions the industry identified before a credible decommissioning path can be set. The RBA says a new target date would be considered only if the vision, options analysis and roadmap lead to decommissioning, and only after relevant roadmap milestones and thresholds have been delivered. For a PSP, the practical signal is that BECS has no fixed closure date. AusPayNet says members intend to transition toward modern alternatives such as the NPP, but the RBA has recommended a broader options analysis, including consideration of upgrading BECS, before future A2A infrastructure decisions are locked in.

The reforms that do carry obligations: PSP licensing and prudential rules

While the vision sets direction, Treasury’s payment-service-provider licensing reform remains at exposure-draft stage. The 9 October to 6 November 2025 consultation was Tranche 1a and covered core concepts and licensing obligations. Treasury subsequently consulted on the full Tranche 1 package from 12 March to 14 April 2026. That package covered regulated payment functions, licensing and safeguarding, exemptions and exclusions, unclaimed money, a new prudential framework, a rule-making power for a mandatory revised ePayments Code, and transitional arrangements. Treasury identifies common access requirements, an industry standard-setting body and review of the ePayments Code as Tranche 2 work during 2026.

The direction of that framework is a move away from the current product-by-product treatment toward a graduated model that tailors obligations to the size and type of provider. It includes a rule-making power to introduce a mandatory, revised ePayments Code, which would lift the current voluntary code onto an enforceable footing for consumer electronic payments. The full Tranche 1 exposure draft consulted on in March and April 2026 includes a new prudential framework and APRA powers for major stored-value facility providers and designated PSPs. These remain proposed provisions and have not commenced.

The trap here is timing, not scope. The Tranche 1 materials remain exposure drafts following a consultation that closed on 14 April 2026; the proposed provisions have not been enacted or commenced, and the draft package includes transitional arrangements. A provider that reads the draft as if it were in force risks building to requirements that shift before they bite. A provider that ignores it risks discovering, late, that its activity moves inside the licensing perimeter. The disciplined position is to map current activities against the proposed payment functions now, and to keep that mapping live as each tranche lands. For teams that already track prudential settlement questions, our companion note on APRA APS 210 and deposits with settlement service providers covers the liquidity-reporting edge of the same perimeter.

AML/CTF readiness: the 31 March 2026 commencement

The vision’s “safe” and “secure and protected” language has a hard-edged counterpart that commences in the same year. The reformed AML/CTF obligations took effect on 31 March 2026 for current reporting entities. From 1 July 2026 they also applied to newly regulated legal, accounting, real-estate and precious-metals sectors and to businesses providing new virtual-asset designated services, other than item 50A.

For entities subject to IFTI reporting, section 46 IVTS reporting is deferred until the entity’s IVTS reporting transition date. Until then, IFTIs continue under the preserved pre-reform Act, Rules and exemptions. The default transition date is 31 March 2029. A substitute date between 31 March and 30 September 2029 is available only to an entity that was required to lodge at least one IFTI before 31 March 2026 and satisfies the notice requirements; AUSTRAC will not accept notifications until 2029. An entity providing international value transfers involving virtual assets before 31 March 2029 cannot choose a substitute date. Current reporting entities enrolled on 30 March 2026 may transition to the new TTR and SMR forms at any time from 1 July 2026 to 30 March 2029; during that period, they may continue using the pre-1 July 2026 forms or use the new forms. Entities enrolled after 30 March 2026 must use the new forms from 1 July 2026.

The convergence with the A2A vision is thematic rather than mechanical. The reformed AML regime falls outside the payments roadmap, and it predates the vision. It still sits under the same “trusted” heading, though: a national A2A system cannot be judged safe if its participants cannot detect and report the flows that move through it.

The scams dimension behind the “safe” outcome

The one outcome most exposed to public and political scrutiny is safety, and Australia already has a dedicated statute for it. The Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 inserted the framework into Part IVF of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. A 2026 designation instrument covers specified banking, telecommunications and digital-platform services. For covered banking services, transitional provisions defer most substantive Part IVF obligations until 31 March 2027; before then, only specified code-making, external-dispute-resolution and related provisions apply. Treasury consulted on draft common and sector codes and rules from 28 May to 25 June 2026.

The final vision identifies fraud and cyber threats as part of the operating context and says the roadmap will address security and consumer-protection requirements. It does not state that authorised push-payment fraud is the principal A2A fraud channel or commit the roadmap to a particular payee-verification design. Australian PSPs watching how payee confirmation has developed in other markets can compare the direction against the European approach in our note on the EPC Verification of Payee 2.0 scheme standard, while keeping in mind that Australia’s obligations flow from its own legislation, not the EU rulebooks.

What a payment service provider can do now

A direction-setting document with no deadline is easy to file and forget. The teams that get value from this one will treat it as a planning input, not a compliance event. A few steps carry their weight before the roadmap lands.

Start by mapping the six characteristics against your live obligations, and mark which of them you already report against. “Secure and protected” ties to your AML/CTF program and the scams framework. “Accessible for providers” ties to your settlement arrangements and any sponsor-bank dependency. “Appropriately standardised” ties to your ISO 20022 message readiness and scheme conformance. The mapping surfaces where a future roadmap deliverable would land on infrastructure you already run.

The one part of this worth actually resourcing is the roadmap feedback mechanism. The roadmap-development phase provides an opportunity to submit evidence on proposed data or resilience expectations before sequencing is finalised. The Roundtable has said it will run structured input mechanisms across 2026. The final Roundtable report says the roadmap phase will use a Participants Committee and Voice of the Customer and Stakeholder forums as structured mechanisms for stakeholder input, challenge and feedback. PSPs can use those mechanisms to provide evidence on implementation cost, lead time and operational dependencies.

Then keep the licensing and prudential tranches on the same watch-list as the roadmap. The vision tells you the destination; the Treasury drafts tell you which providers will need a licence to travel, and which will face APRA prudential supervision. A team that tracks both together will see a coherent programme instead of a scatter of unrelated consultations. Australia is not alone in rebuilding its retail rails this way; the parallel effort in the United Kingdom, covered in our note on the next-generation UK retail payments infrastructure consultation, shows the same vision-then-roadmap sequencing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the A2A payments vision create any new reporting obligation for Australian PSPs?

No. The vision published on 8 July 2026 does not itself amend a reporting return, template or deadline. The roadmap is expected to define high-level deliverables, implementation timelines, and governance and coordination arrangements, but it is not itself identified as legislation or a regulatory instrument. Any enforceable reporting obligation would require a separate legal, regulatory, scheme-rule or contractual basis.

Who sits on the A2A Payments Roundtable, and why does it matter?

Four bodies: AusPayNet, AP+, the RBA and Commonwealth Treasury. Their participation gives the vision industry, scheme, central-bank and public-policy input. It does not make the vision law, and the ACCC authorisation does not permit implementation of an agreed position.

Is BECS closing in 2030?

Not on a fixed date. AusPayNet removed the June 2030 target end-date on 16 December 2025 because the industry did not believe it was achievable, citing the lack of a shared A2A vision among the reasons. BECS members still intend to transition toward modern alternatives such as the NPP. However, the RBA’s March 2026 assessment recommends an options analysis that includes upgrading BECS. A new target date would arise only if the vision, options analysis and roadmap lead to decommissioning, and only after relevant roadmap milestones and thresholds are delivered.

When do the reformed AML/CTF obligations start, and what changes for remitters first?

The reforms took effect on 31 March 2026 for current reporting entities and on 1 July 2026 for newly regulated entities and new virtual-asset designated services, except item 50A. Entities subject to IFTI reporting continue under the preserved pre-reform rules until their IVTS reporting transition date. The default date is 31 March 2029. Only an entity required to lodge at least one IFTI before 31 March 2026 may nominate a substitute date up to 30 September 2029, subject to the notice requirements. AUSTRAC will not accept notifications until 2029, and entities providing international value transfers involving virtual assets before 31 March 2029 cannot choose a substitute date. Current reporting entities enrolled on 30 March 2026 may transition to the new TTR and SMR forms at any time from 1 July 2026 to 30 March 2029, continuing to use the pre-1 July 2026 forms until then if they choose; entities enrolled after 30 March 2026 must use the new forms from 1 July 2026.

Will Australian PSPs need a new licence because of these reforms?

Possibly, depending on activity. Treasury’s full Tranche 1 exposure draft proposes a graduated licensing framework tied to regulated payment functions, with APRA powers for major stored-value facility providers and designated PSPs. The consultation closed on 14 April 2026; the proposals have not yet been enacted or commenced. Providers should map their activities against the exposure draft and update that analysis when legislation and later tranches are released.

How is the “safe” outcome connected to the Scams Prevention Framework?

The 2026 designation instrument covers specified services provided by ADIs, alongside specified telecommunications and digital-platform services. For covered banking services, most substantive Part IVF obligations are deferred until 31 March 2027. The final A2A vision identifies security and consumer-protection requirements as roadmap topics, but it does not state that a particular payee-verification design will be adopted.

What is the single most useful action to take before the roadmap is published?

Engage the structured feedback mechanisms established for roadmap development. The final Roundtable report identifies PSPs as part of the broader stakeholder ecosystem and says the roadmap forums will provide input on system requirements, capability priorities, implementation considerations, trade-offs and adoption considerations.

Related Articles

• RBA RITS Assessment 2026: settlement access for Australian PSPs – How the Reserve Bank assesses its core settlement system and what widening access means for non-bank providers.
• RBA Payments System Board June 2026 surcharging reforms – A separate card-payments reform stream relevant to payment-cost strategy; it is not incorporated into the A2A vision.
• APRA APS 210: deposits with settlement service providers – The liquidity-reporting treatment of settlement balances, relevant as the prudential perimeter widens.
• UK next-generation retail payments infrastructure consultation – A parallel jurisdiction rebuilding its A2A rails through the same vision-then-roadmap approach.
• EPC Verification of Payee 2.0 scheme standard for EU PSPs – How Europe is standardising payee confirmation, useful context for Australia’s “safe” outcome.
• FSB cross-border payments progress and the G20 targets – The international backdrop of cost, speed and transparency goals that domestic A2A modernisation feeds into.

Key Takeaways

• The A2A payments vision published on 8 July 2026 sets a long-term direction for Australia’s account-to-account rails. It adds no reporting obligation, template or deadline.
• It was produced by the Roundtable of AusPayNet, AP+, the RBA and Treasury under an ACCC authorisation granted 1 August 2025, so it is coordinated industry intent rather than law.
• The vision addresses one of the gaps AusPayNet cited when removing the June 2030 BECS target on 16 December 2025. BECS members intend to transition toward modern alternatives such as the NPP, but the RBA has recommended a broader options analysis, including upgrading BECS, and says PayTo has not yet demonstrated maturity as a direct-debit replacement.
• Implementation work is split across distinct streams: the industry A2A roadmap process, Treasury’s proposed PSP licensing and prudential legislation, and the already commenced AML/CTF reforms. Each stream has a different legal status and timeline.
• AML/CTF reforms took effect on 31 March 2026 for current reporting entities and on 1 July 2026 for newly regulated entities and new virtual-asset designated services, except item 50A. IFTI reporters remain on the preserved pre-reform reporting basis until their IVTS transition date. The default date is 31 March 2029; any substitute date up to 30 September 2029 is subject to eligibility and notice conditions, and AUSTRAC will accept notifications only in 2029. Entities providing international value transfers involving virtual assets before 31 March 2029 cannot nominate a substitute date.
• Specified banking services are designated under the Scams Prevention Framework, but transitional provisions defer most substantive obligations until 31 March 2027. The framework is separate from the A2A vision and roadmap.
• A practical action now is to map the six system characteristics against live obligations and to engage the Roundtable’s structured feedback mechanisms while the roadmap is still being drafted.

Sources and References

• Reserve Bank of Australia, Media Release 2026-18, “A2A Payments Roundtable Releases Vision for Account-to-Account Payments in Australia”, 8 July 2026: https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2026/mr-26-18.html
• Account-to-Account Payments Roundtable, “The vision for account-to-account payments in Australia”, July 2026: https://a2apaymentsaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/a2a-payments-vision.pdf
• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, “AusPayNet authorised to collaborate about the future of account-to-account payment infrastructure”, 1 August 2025: https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/news/media-updates/auspaynet-authorised-to-collaborate-about-the-future-of-account-to-account-payment-infrastructure
• A2A Payments Australia, vision and roadmap information: https://www.a2apaymentsaustralia.com.au
• Australian Payments Network, “AusPayNet revises outlook for the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) Framework”, 16 December 2025: https://auspaynet.com.au/insights/Media-Release/BECS_outlook
• Reserve Bank of Australia, “Decommissioning of the Bulk Electronic Clearing System: RBA Risk Assessment Update”, March 2026: https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/new-payments-platform/bulk-electronic-clearing-system/decommissioning-of-the-becs-rba-risk-assessment-03-2026/pdf/becs-decommissioning-risk-assessment-03-2026.pdf
• Reserve Bank of Australia, “Exchange Settlement Account Policy”: https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/esa/
• Australian Treasury, Payments licensing reforms policy page: https://treasury.gov.au/policy-topics/banking-and-finance/payments-licensing-reforms
• Australian Treasury, “Regulation of Payment Service Providers – Tranche 1 draft legislation”, consultation open 12 March to 14 April 2026: https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2026-746108
• Assistant Treasurer media release, “New legislation to modernise the regulation of payment service providers”, 9 October 2025: https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/daniel-mulino-2025/media-releases/new-legislation-modernise-regulation-payment-service
• AUSTRAC, “AML/CTF transitional rules 2026” (IVTS reporting transition date): https://www.austrac.gov.au/about-us/legislation/updates-legislation/amlctf-transitional-rules-2026
• AUSTRAC, “Changes to transaction reporting from 1 July 2026”: https://www.austrac.gov.au/changes-transaction-reporting-1-july-2026
• AUSTRAC, “Summary of changes for current reporting entities (Reform)”: https://www.austrac.gov.au/amlctf-reform/reforms-guidance/before-you-start/summary-changes-current-reporting-entities-reform
• Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 (No. 15, 2025), Federal Register of Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2025A00015/asmade
• Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Part IVF, current compilation: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00109/latest
• Competition and Consumer (Scams Prevention Framework – Regulated Sectors) Designation 2026: https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00627/asmade
• Australian Treasury, “Scams Prevention Framework codes and rules exposure draft”, consultation open 28 May to 25 June 2026: https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2026-765133

Turning a vision into a readiness plan

The A2A payments vision is not a reporting-calendar event. Its value is as a planning signal for the roadmap now being developed. The AML/CTF reform commencement dates have passed, while the PSP licensing and prudential proposals remain exposure drafts without an enacted commencement date. A provider should therefore track the roadmap, Treasury’s legislative process and AUSTRAC’s transition rules separately, and engage through the roadmap feedback mechanisms while sequencing remains open.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.