Media Release Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System

The Reserve Bank today released the 2020 Assessment of the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) against the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI). The Assessment concludes that RITS ‘observed’ all relevant Principles as at 31 March 2020, other than Operational Risk, which was rated as ‘broadly observed’.

RITS is Australia's high-value payments system, which is used by banks and other approved institutions to settle their payment obligations on a real-time gross settlement basis. The Assessment was independently prepared by the Bank's Payments Policy Department and endorsed by the Payments System Board.

The Assessment discusses the Bank's ongoing initiatives to support the continued operational stability of RITS as part of its Technology Stability Improvement Program, and recommends that the Bank completes the implementation of this work. The Assessment also describes the actions taken by the Bank as operator of RITS in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and notes that the recommendations made in the 2019 Assessment have been fully addressed.

Background

The Payments System Board has responsibility for the safety and stability of payment systems in Australia. The Payments System Board's policy is that systemically important payment systems are expected to observe the PFMI issued by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and International Organization of Securities Commissions.

RITS is owned and operated by the Bank. The Bank considers that RITS is a systemically important payment system and has committed to conduct annual assessments of RITS against the PFMI. These assessments are produced by the Bank's Payments Policy Department, which is the functional area responsible for oversight of the Australian payments system. A separate functional area, Payments Settlements Department, is responsible for operating RITS.

For more information on the Bank's approach to assessing systemically important payment systems, see the Policy Statement on the Supervision and Oversight of Systemically Important Payment Systems.