Local American Express boss Corrina Davison has found herself increasingly isolated as banks, merchants and card schemes urge the Reserve Bank to bring three-party card networks inside equivalent regulation.

Australian fintech heavyweights led by Airwallex, Adyen, Azupay and Digital Economy Council has put access to the NPP at the centre of the RBA’s regulatory review, calling for intervention to turn A2A into “genuine” competition.

Australia’s card networks have joined forces on an industry marketing “education” campaign to sell the October surcharge ban they lobbied for, after small businesses warned the RBA’s interchange cuts alone will not sufficiently reduce their payment costs and complained that the schemes have not yet even published their new fees.

Australia’s central bank sees little need for a digital dollar for consumers, but is pushing ahead with plans to reshape RITS for tokenised wholesale finance.

NAB and Australian Payments Plus (AP+) have warned that card tokenisation could undermine the merchant benefits of least-cost routing, but differ on how far regulators should intervene and who should be targeted.

Commentator Vibhu Arya breaks down the recent RBA submissions, analysing who is lobbying for what at a high level.

As the RBA mulls Australia’s payments future, Vietnam offers an intriguing case study: cash remains strong, while high card fees have helped QR-based account payments leapfrog cards.

Australian merchants on Shopify will have another BNPL option to pay with the launch of Shop Pay Installments.

Melbourne-based gifting group Limitless Technology has consolidated four payment gateways onto Adyen, simplifying payments across five brands and six Asia-Pacific markets as it continues to expand its e-commerce operations.