News on regulation, including from Treasury, the RBA, ACCC, AUSTRAC and other authorities
Cash
+1
Oct 28, 2025
•
Strike action from cash-in-transit workers hit the Spring Racing Carnival just days after the ACCC has issued a draft determination green lighting the Australian Banking Association (ABA) and other industry partners to develop ways to ensure the continued distribution of cash across Australia.
Fintech
+2
Cuscal is set to welcome about 20 new bank, government and fintech customers to its fold, after the ACCC cleared the way for its proposed $75 m acquisition of Indue Limited.
Regulation
Industry insiders and proceeds of crime experts question whether PSPs are making any effort to help halt the $10 billion trade - and whether the latest government task force will make a difference.
AusPayNet will communicate a revised roadmap for the BECS shutdown before the end of the year, as the Reserve Bank urges the industry to cooperate on a shared vision for Account-to-Account (A2A) payments and expect “trade-offs”.
Oct 21, 2025
Only fuel and groceries have been classified as “essential purchases” under draft regulations released for comment on Friday, with medicines, government services and clothing among items failing to qualify.
Merchant Service Fees
+3
There is a lot of debate around the surcharge ban in Australia. The Reserve Bank (RBA) claims only 10% of small businesses surcharge, but many are sceptical of that figure. If the RBA is wrong, a ban on surcharging can have serious implications for consumers, businesses and payment service providers.
After eight months in seeming purgatory, the mandating cash acceptance submissions are now available for viewing, but with major banks and retailers missing, it’s hard to decipher whose opinions on cash Treasury values.
+4
Oct 14, 2025
Treasury has started consultation on tranche 1 of its new regulatory framework for Payment Service Providers (PSPs).
Payments industry leaders have welcomed the introduction of the Payday Super legislation to Parliament that will require employers to pay their employees’ super at the same time as their salary and wages from 1 July 2026.
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has admitted that not only are small merchants paying “much, much more” in card fees than their big business counterparts, but they may continue to do so under its proposed plan.
A number of Payment Service Providers say they are actively working to identify and block illegal tobacco businesses and remove their POS terminal services.
Oct 7, 2025
Deloitte Access Economics has provided their final "independent" pricing mechanism report to Armaguard, the major banks and some major retailers, with it announced on Friday without any detail.
In 2025 PayPal overtook CommBank in the volume of merchant complaints filed with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Official AFCA data also shows complaints were received from users of ANZ “merchant facilities” even though the bank exited merchant acquiring in 2022.
+6
Sep 30, 2025
PayDay News celebrates its 1st birthday in October, so we thought it timely to revisit some of our biggest and most popular of the 400 stories published in our first year.
Small business customers of ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions and the Fiserv-owned Clover platform are unable to lodge claims against either provider with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. While both acquirers are exempt from having to submit to AFCA’s jurisdiction, their non-participation in the dispute resolution scheme highlights a loophole that lawmakers have failed to close.
+5
The Reserve Bank has outlined an action plan to improve payments resilience over the next two years as outages continue to rock public confidence in the system.
Digital & Online
The 10 year ASX saga to upgrade its ageing settlements and clearances infrastructure continues, amidst a new ASIC probe and a fail from the RBA in its latest report.
Sep 23, 2025
Lobbyists at the Australian Banking Association (ABA) were left red faced this week after being roundly rebuked over their relentless public threats to throttle spending on fraud protection, discount rewards points and ramp up card fees.
Key strategies to reduce the cost of card fees charged to small businesses are not being used by the Reserve Bank of Australia, despite decades of market failure under the “reluctant regulator” and its proposed ban on surcharging.
Financial regulators are close to recommending a way forward for cash distribution in Australia, reiterating that hard currency remains an essential part of the economy and cash in circulation is at record highs. In the meantime, they have flagged yet another consultation - this time on Amex, BNPL and mobile wallets.
With BNPL now regulated, a slew of wage-advance ‘fintechs’ remain effectively unregulated and highly secretive, thriving on the cost-of-living crisis.
Sep 16, 2025
If the Reserve Bank wants consensus on its proposal for merchant fees and surcharging, it’s a lost cause. The best the central bank can hope for is a decision in the public interest, leveraging strong sentiment on issues such as scheme fees, least-cost routing and the burden on small business.
Sep 9, 2025
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has talked up the benefits of the New Payments Platform in Australia, while its key customer – the Federal Government - continues to hold back on moving substantial volume to the platform.
After years of deliberation and delay, federal parliament has finally passed changes to the Payments System Regulation Act. While the reforms give the Treasurer new special powers to designate payments systems in the ‘national interest’ they are unlikely to advance the RBA’s mandate to support competition. Currently only eftpos, NPP, Visa and MasterCard are designated payment systems.
Tyro is warning customers to only make “modest price adjustments” in the wake of the proposed RBA surcharging bans next year, while continuing to promote hefty 1.4% bundled plans with surcharging to new small business clients.
