Tens of thousands of merchants couldn't accept card payments last Wednesday, and customers were left with cash as the only option to pay for goods and services. Plenty of them didn't have any. The RBA calls physical cash an "all hazards" hedge. But are banks, the government and the card schemes all planning for the day it goes away?

After more than 100 submissions and months of debate, subtle but significant changes have been made to the final Vision for Account-to-Account Payments in Australia, with resilience, access and commercial sustainability emerging as important edits along with the concept of critical national infrastructure.

Struggling taxi drivers may be among the small businesses to cop the brunt of card fees under “no surcharge” scheme rules from October 1, with the regulated industry no longer offered a special carve out exemption by the Reserve Bank. But the taxis drivers are fighting back. They want to stay under state-based laws and keep the surcharge going.

Clubs Australia, customer owned banks and the country's second-largest cash carrier have all now written to the ACCC. So have a growing queue of ordinary Australians, several of whom independently reached for the same barnyard metaphor. Almost everyone wants the same thing: a much shorter leash.

WEX has been primarily known as a fuel card business in Australia since the 1980s but it was only ever the visible tip of this mammoth payments business. Its pitch for the next decade is virtual, mobility and open loop as it confronts Visa and Mastercard head-on at the bowser and EV charging station.

AusPayNet is pushing ahead with planning for potential upgrades for the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS) should they be required to meet end-user objectives for the nation’s account-to-account payments vision.

The CEO of Sydney-based paytech Azupay, Andrew Baines, is urging Australian company boards to stop treating the New Payments Platform (NPP) as an emerging technology and begin a controlled transition to what has become critical, national infrastructure.

With credit card loyalty schemes under pressure, Hong Kong-based Ogloba has appointed former Shift4, Wex and Placard veteran Larry Samuels to lead its new local operations, saying it wants to revolutionise ‘retailer currency’ with its white-label platform that combines payment infrastructure, mobile, loyalty, and turnkey B2B distribution.

In stark contrast to Australia, New Zealanders have until 31 July to weigh in on one of the world's most ambitious and coordinated cash access reforms, as their Reserve Bank argues banks rather than Governments, must guarantee the future of cash.

On The Interchange Bench this week Kraus celebrates 150M milestone and a year of CoP, Uber cash hits New Zealand, Dr Pragnell pokes the real time challenge, scheme haven Singapore questions card fees, Pham heads up IT service delivery at AP+ and Bullock promotes Bullock’s private briefing.

Last week’s Telstra outage reminded us that getting paid is the most important thing that a business does. Treat it accordingly.

Every rate, fee and eligibility rule a non-bank lender charges will soon be machine-readable via open banking. That includes buy now pay later (BNPL) like Afterpay and Zip.

Fiserv-owned fintech Pinch Payments is betting a $50,000 cash prize will help uncover the next generation of payments innovation, launching a national hackathon aimed at solving real-world business payment challenges.

Just six months into the cash mandate and the ACCC has granted a large group of Petro National and Ampol Australia exemptions from accepting cash.

Payments veteran Ian Povey has joined CBA-backed Brisbane fintech Paypa Plane as chair, with the company arguing Australia's next challenge is building trusted payment frameworks for an increasingly AI-driven and account-to-account payments ecosystem.

Crypto brokerage Swyftx has secured an Australian Financial Services Licence, paving the way for future payment products as it expands beyond digital asset trading.

July marks 4 years of PayTo in the Australian payments industry and PayDay News is celebrating.