Financial institutions will have their systems in place and ready to go when the Government's new account-switching regime starts on July 1. If there are any problems they will be among the 200,000 businesses that use the direct entry system.The Australian Payments Clearing Association has been co-ordinating the direct entry system changes required to accommodate the new regime's rules, and the association's chief executive, Chris Hamilton, said he was confident financial institutions would be ready.Users of the system - companies that handle payments through direct credit and debits - will have to make some adjustments of their own to communicate with a new secure message system.The Government's commitment to promote the changes has not materialised and some small users may not be up to speed.Under the new rules, the task of transferring direct entry arrangements from one financial provider to another will pass from the customer to the financial institution. Customers will sign a document authorising their new financial institution to execute the transfers on their behalf. The new institution will have the authority to require the current provider to change payment arrangements.It is the obligation of the financial institution to make sure that the direct entry users it sponsors complete the process.The Government gave a commitment to make account-switching easier in its 2010 banking policy package, "A Competitive and Sustainable Banking System".An initial proposal was to have account number portability, but a review of proposals by former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser rejected this approach as being too costly. Full account number portability remains the goal of some consumer advocates.Instead, Fraser recommended the use of an electronic "mailbox" to handle secure messaging of customers' direct entry payment details between financial institutions.APCA has built the mailbox, which will link to the direct entry system.Hamilton said it was not clear what sort of an impact the new rules would have. In its submission to the Fraser review, APCA pointed out that about 10 per cent of transaction accounts are transferred each year, which suggests that many people who want to change providers are already doing so.Hamilton said: "This lowers the hurdle and it will make the transaction banking market more competitive. But the impact might only be at the margin."