KPMG will be the program manager for the real-time payments program being coordinated by the Australian Payments Clearing Association. APCA announced KPMG's selection yesterday.KPMG - which helped direct the Faster Payments project in the UK several years ago - beat a list of rival consulting practices tied to accounting firms for the work. IBM was also said to have been interested.The next milestone in what APCA is for now calling the "New Payments Platform" will be "a request for tender for, and selection of, the key elements of the operating solution", but this is not scheduled until 2014."The initial six-month phase of the program aims to develop business requirements for the proposed platform, together with a detailed plan and budget for the next phases of development," APCA said in a media release.APCA said a search process was underway for an independent chair for the steering committee for the NPP. The new steering committee will take over the work from a committee chaired by Jenny Fagg, former CEO of ANZ National Bank.KPMG declined to identify the key personnel involved in the work of the program office. A media spokesperson said the firm had "appointed a team of local and global senior partners to the project."