The timetable for "Mambo", the big banks' project to develop an electronic addressing system to speed up payments, is drifting amid lacklustre support from two banks and dissent among smaller banks co-opted to help fund the development work.Testing for Mambo will be confined to the two banks that first championed the project, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac.ANZ and National Australia Bank remain involved and are members of the steering committee, but industry talk is that the commitment of both banks to the project is lukewarm.Funding for the development of Mambo is also controversial.On Monday, the management committee of BPay Pty Ltd, which is co-ordinating the project, voted down a proposal for a levy of around 15 per cent on top of existing scheme fees.All 160 financial institutions that are members of BPay would have had to pay the levy, not just the four banks working on Mambo.Mambo was first conceived in 2006 as a solution to the growing demand by customers for more effective payment options in the era of the internet. Big bank chief executives and the Australian Bankers Association embraced the concept in late 2008.The context of their support was the grumbling by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has responsibility for payments systems, over the lack of innovation in payments and the implied threat (which remains) of greater regulation if banks do not invest in online payments services.Mambo would provide one means of updating the present, and cumbersome, arrangements for bank transfers. These include the direct entry system for periodic payments and the 'pay anyone' feature within internet banking services that piggy-backs on that system.In the words of one document used to promote Mambo, the service "will provide every person, organisation and government body in Australia with the opportunity to pay and be paid by anyone… securely… and without having to disclose sensitive banking details or personal information." Mambo, potentially, provides a solution to the recent restlessness of the Australian Government over the lack of portability of bank accounts and their associated periodic payments, an issue on which the former RBA governor, Bernie Fraser, is due to report soon.While supported by all major bank CEOs and the ABA, Mambo has always been seen as an initiative of CBA and to a lesser extent Westpac. Line management at NAB and ANZ were reluctant recruits to the project.In a timeline worked out in early 2010, BPay proposed to complete development work by December 2011.BPay selected CSC as systems integrator and Tibco as supplier of the messaging software. Eighteen months ago, Bpay estimated the development budget for the project at around A$150 million. This covered costs directly incurred by BPay and by the four banks working on their own systems. The combined project budget is now said to be closer to A$200 million.Working capital for BPay, which mainly relates to Mambo, includes a A$25 million loan from Commonwealth Bank and a A$56 million share issue by Cardlink Services (which owns BPay) to the major banks, with the last instalment due in