Revenue NSW is handing out buckets of personal information to complete strangers when citizens search for unclaimed cheques, dividends and other money.

The Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) is set for a major upgrade this year – the first “strategic modernisation” of Australia’s high-value real-time settlement system since the Fast Settlement Service was launched in 2018.

In an increasingly less-cash world, Australia’s domestic card network eftpos has moved to reduce the impact of bank outages with a new Stand-in Processing feature - but will card issuers be willing to wear the risk?

Worldpay is partnering with Banking Circle to provide its Australian customers real-time payouts, consistent integration, reporting, and reconciliation as well as full support for local clearing rails.

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is continuing to build momentum, with Australian Payments Plus (AP+) now focusing its attention on business customers.

On The Interchange Bench this week, AMEX talks up “benefits”, Nigel Lee to take charge at Tyro on Monday, Airwallex grows in Amsterdam, Zii launches in Japan and Dan Jovevski joins FinTech Australia’s Board.

Consultations closed this week on a new framework to help protect consumers from scams - as scammers and criminal gangs continue to wreak havoc on hundreds of thousands of Australian families and businesses.

The fourth meeting of the A2A Payments Roundtable was held last month in Sydney but broader stakeholders and end users will need to wait until at least next month to have a say.

The Cash Acceptance Mandate became law on January 1 and the ACCC has now greenlighted the Australian Banking Association (ABA) to collaborate on cash distribution despite stakeholder concerns - kicking off a huge year for cash policy in Australia.

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is staring down the corporate regulator, committing to pay back only a third of what ASIC says it charged low income customers and Centrelink recipients in “excessive” account fees.