Payments evolution is creating new opportunities
How Australians pay for goods and services has transformed over the past 20 years. Cheques are all but gone, and the federal government says they will be phased out by the end of the decade.
Contactless payments now make up 95 per cent of all in-person card payments – up by 10 per cent over the last three years – and the Reserve Bank of Australia reports that use of debit cards has soared, while credit card use is slowly increasing.
Mark Nagy, founder and chief executive of DataMesh, whose 100-strong team drew on their banking and payments sector expertise to create a SaaS platform that can be used by banks.
At the same time, there has been a significant change in how merchants operate. Digital transformation has replaced cash-based systems with sophisticated point-of-sale systems that integrate with inventory and accounting systems as well as online sales. At the intersection of these applications and banks sit payment systems.
The Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet), which oversees the systems that support much of Australia’s payments infrastructure, is consulting on changes to the way payments are handled, suggesting further changes may be coming, such as stronger security measures and other reforms.
Andy White, the CEO of AusPayNet, says the payments industry needs to manage new risks, as cybercrime and digital fraud become more prevalent. He says that all Payment Service Providers “should be licensed, regardless of whether there is a direct consumer relationship or not”.
For banks, this transformation has created new challenges. Processes that were built at a time when most transactions were carried out with physical currency and on paper-based systems have had to adapt to the evolution of payment methods and
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