Warwick Ponder

Warwick has been involved in public debate about Australian payments regulation and innovation for almost 15 years, strongly advocating for the rights of consumers and small businesses. He has more than 30 years of experience in publishing, advocacy and business communications across fields including government, payments, telecommunications, energy and natural resources.

Consultation looks at PSPs, ePayments Code powers and unclaimed funds

Treasury has launched a consultation on new legislation for payments service providers (PSPs), including power to make rules for a mandatory and revised ePayments Code and new controls for unclaimed monies.

Fintech

Rare debit surcharge slap for Hyatt just days away from RBA decision

More than 18 months after receiving $2.1 million in funding for surcharging surveillance, the competition regulator has finally taken action.

Regulation

US Ripple buys remnants of BC Payments for Aussie licence

US crypto outfit Ripple is buying the remnants of Banking Circle’s original Australian entity, BC Payments Australia, to obtain an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) quickly.

Banks

Cards close to the chest – RBA mum on fees and surcharge decision

The decision has already been made but the Reserve Bank isn’t giving away any clues as it prepares for the official release of its final verdict on merchant fees and surcharging later this month.

Merchant Service Fees

Is banking politics at play in lingering cash saga?

Despite the promise of special interest deals and approved closed-shop negotiations, Australia’s high drama cash distribution saga has dragged on for almost three years.

Cash

Is Matos’ next move to ramp up or sell off ANZ Worldline and the Suncorp merchant business?

Well-versed in the art of acquiring, ANZ’s Nuno Matos now faces a payment headache – what to do with Suncorp’s 3,000 merchant customers, and his troublesome joint venture partner Worldline.

Banks

RBA threatens to intervene over A2A discord

The Reserve Bank will intervene to achieve “public interest” outcomes on real time payments if the industry fails to find consensus on key issues like bulk processing and resilience.

Regulation

Payments legend Dhun Karai is finally slowing her pace ... sort of

Dhun Karai - one of the most influential women in Australian payments – is slightly easing her lightning pace for the first time in three decades, citing aggressive promotion of eftpos and mentoring young women in payments as some of her biggest achievements to date.

The Payments Spotlight

Bank lobby flags capped credit card surcharge option

With the Reserve Bank set to make its final decision on merchant fees and surcharging tomorrow, the big bank lobby has flagged an alternative to banning credit card surcharging which involves the introduction of credit surcharge caps.

Merchant Service Fees

Big banks fight to compete online, as rumours rage on Stripe PayPal buyout

Aussie banks are struggling to compete with easy to use and fee-heavy plugins and apps in Australia’s fastest growing payment category - online - as talk of a Stripe takeover of PayPal and Block shedding jobs floods the market.

Digital & Online

Cross-border payments still too expensive and slow: RBA

Australia’s goals to speed up and reduce the cost of cross-border payments are behind schedule, with banks usually proving more expensive than some fintechs to send money overseas.

Digital & Online

Osko and SCT join in A2A harmony

Australian Payments Plus (AP+) is harmonising its New Payments Platform (NPP) push payments offering by merging the Single Credit Transfer (STC) and Osko services into one.

A2A