While a few hopeful fintechs are expecting government to support a massive shift to account-to-account (A2A) POS payments, Apple and the RBA say the country’s infrastructure is geared towards EMV card payments and simply isn’t ready.

A marathon day of parliamentary testimony revealed a payments system where nobody admits to being dominant, nobody can fully explain where the money goes, and Australia’s small businesses are caught in the crossfire between banks, card schemes, and big tech.

A parliamentary inquiry into card schemes and digital wallets has labelled the dominance of US card schemes in Australia a “monopoly”, while others said the benefits of least-cost routing are being eroded by pervasive blended rate plans.

With its business model on the brink, blended rate terminal operator Smartpay has changed its name and come out swinging on surcharge regulation, scheme fees, Apple Pay and big bank dominance, including the role of the industry’s “governance body” AusPayNet.

On The Interchange Bench this week Alison Morris has a big new role at Global Payments, Cuscal delivers half year lift, Matthew Lee looks at MasterCard’s business performance, Karthik Ramamurthy gets a product promo at AP+, Tyro unleashes Alexander “The Great” on Melbourne and its half year results, and Azupay’s in the Clover.

With the RBA’s card surcharging ban set to hit in July, London-based payments veteran Neil Fillbrook is bringing BB Merchant Services’ forensic cost-reduction model to Australia — promising average savings of 23% for businesses.

The country’s biggest bank will be able to offer customers Dynamic Least-Cost Routing (DLCR) and improved outage resilience by year end, after it snapped up local innovative fintech IPSI.

A wave of Australian platforms letting businesses put payable on cards to earn frequent-flyer points is accelerating in a sector shaped as much by loyalty economics as payments innovation.

With a proven euro stablecoin already in circulation, Banking Circle is laying the groundwork for what could become Australia’s most significant bank-backed digital currency infrastructure - arriving at precisely the moment regulators are finally writing the rules.

With migration complete and proprietary lending rising, NAB is betting scale in cards and direct mortgages will lift returns, but market share and margins indicate the next phase depends on execution.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has published its rules for intervening if there is a threat to domestic financial stability or to the continuity of the Clearing and Settlement (CS) facility’s services that are critical to the functioning of the financial system in Australia.

UK-based Volt has joined a growing number of companies accessing the New Payments Platform as “identified institutions” via direct connectors, as a gateway to the Australian payments system.

A 59% jump in cash profit sparked a rally in Latitude Group shares last week, with the company’s 2025 results shows a sharp increase in credit card spend.