Australia's Eftpos system may get a governance overhaul, and, possibly, an actual overhaul if the banks that own the current network and brand can reach agreement.The Australian Bankers Association yesterday said in a media release that it, the ABA, and the Australian Payments Clearing Association "are currently considering options for establishing a centralised commercial governance structure responsible for the promotion and development of the Eftpos system."Eftpos doesn't really have any governance at present. This is the legacy of the origins of the then innovative, if initially rather unreliable, introduction of card-based payments from bank savings accounts and first introduced at Ampol service stations in the early 1980s.Banks progressively negotiated bilateral links (including interchange fees) to foster the growth of what evolved into a ubiquitous payments mechanism.Technical standards for Eftpos were transferred to APCA in the early 1990s, though APCA's never had any kind of marketing or strategic role.To some critics, and notably the Reserve Bank of Australia, an alleged lack of investment in Eftpos is in part a consequence of the structure of the scheme. Reformers, including the RBA, possibly have a model such as Canada's Interac in mind (where there is a central switch and no need for each participant to negotiate links with every other participant).