Media Release Payments System Board Meeting

At its meeting on 15 August, the Payments System Board considered a number of issues including: the review of the card payment reforms; the latest report from the industry on progress in implementing reforms to the ATM system; and the no surcharge and no-steering rules imposed on users of PayPal.

The review of the payments system reforms

In April 2008, the Board released its preliminary conclusions from its review of the payments system reforms. At its recent meeting, the Board reviewed the various submissions made in response to these conclusions. The Board's final report will be issued in late September.

ATM reform

The fourth progress report on the ATM reform project has been received from the Australian Payments Clearing Association and has been published on the Bank's website. The Board notes that the necessary technical work is on track to meet the 3 March 2009 deadline, although the formal arrangements under which interchange fees are to be set to zero have not yet been agreed. The Board encourages the industry to finalise these arrangements as soon as possible. In the event that this is not done by November 2008, the Board will consider how best to ensure that the March 2009 deadline can be met.

No-surcharge rules in PayPal

Over recent months, the Board has received a number of comments on the no-surcharge and no-steering rules that apply to payments using the PayPal system as well as the mandated acceptance of PayPal on eBay's auction site. Where no-surcharge and no-steering rules have existed in other systems, the Board has encouraged their removal on the grounds that these rules can diminish competition in the payments system. Consistent with this, the Bank will shortly be holding discussions with PayPal with a view to seeking the removal of these rules.