Media Release Payments System Board Update: November 2019 Meeting

At its meeting today, the Payments System Board discussed its upcoming review of retail payments regulation which will take place over the coming year. The Review will cover all aspects of the Bank's regulation of retail payments as well as seek views on emerging issues. The Bank will publish an Issues Paper and invite submissions within the next couple of weeks.

The Board also considered a range of other issues, including:

• Retail operational outages. The Board discussed the high number of incidents interrupting electronic payments in Australia and emphasised the importance of financial institutions ensuring that their systems and services are resilient and reliable. The Bank will continue to engage with financial institutions to improve the data on the reliability of their retail payment services.
• The Bank's 2019 assessment of LCH Ltd's SwapClear service, a UK-based clearing and settlement facility licensed to operate in Australia. The Bank's assessment will be published in coming weeks.
• Financial market infrastructure (FMI) regulatory reforms. The Board discussed the proposed regulatory reforms for FMIs, released for consultation by the Council of Financial Regulators on 15 November. The reforms include changes to modernise the supervisory framework and to implement a resolution framework for domestic clearing and settlement facilities.
• Cross-border retail payments. An increasing number of people are seeking to send or receive payments across borders, yet traditional services for doing so are often expensive and slow. The Board reviewed some initiatives that are underway to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of cross-border retail payments, and highlighted the importance of increasing transparency of the cost of cross-border payments.
• The Bank's annual self-assessment under the Regulator Performance Framework. The Board welcomed the feedback that a number of regulated entities provided on how the Bank administers, monitors and enforces its regulation. The self-assessment will be published in coming weeks.

The Board met with the Treasurer of Australia, Josh Frydenberg, over lunch following today's meeting.