"Real time payments will be part of the mainstream" one follower of the New Payments Platform enthused yesterday. The NPP at debut is so far anything but, with small, often mutual ADIs connecting through Cuscal, Australian Settlements and Indue accounting for the 50 or so safe arrivals into the world of real time payments on Tuesday.
While the confusing roll out by big banks dampened the first day with the new service, an NPP spokesperson was able to state in an email: "There were hundreds of thousands of PayID registrations and thousands of payments yesterday.
"Given the careful, controlled ramp-up that we have emphasised is the best approach to rolling out infrastructure of this nature, we're delighted with this result."
"The NPP was never going to be a rapid take up, as all new payments systems take time to get embedded," Lance Blockley, managing director of payment consultants The Initiatives Group, said.
"In three years' time, real time payments will be part of the mainstream," he said.
Citing the ramp up of BPay, the last big payments reform in Australian banking (and also the product of the same proponents of the NPP), Blockley said "Bpay, introduced in late 1997, languished for six years, then took off like a rocket once both internet banking users and BPay Billers reached critical mass.
"Payments are habitual, and it takes time for people to change the way they pay," Blockley told Banking Day.
Mutual banks, building societies are credit unions were among those to most strongly push PayID registration, starting last Friday, and so it was customers from this cohort of smaller ADIs that dominated early transaction flow as the keenest customers tested real time payments for themselves during yesterday morning.
Derek Weatherley, chief executive at Indue, a payment processor for smaller ADIs, wrote in an email, that yesterday was "a very successful launch from our perspective.
"All seven of the Indue participants that planned to launch today launched and are live. In terms of volumes, it has certainly taken off with a running start from our customers' standpoint.
"We saw traffic start to flow immediately it was open to public, so people are using it and Pay ID registrations are certainly happening."
Weatherly added some colour on the toll taken on staff around the sector, to assure the smooth arrival of this new payments experience for a minority of Australian bank customers.
"We had folk working all through the night to get the systems into production and verified, with no material issues for what has been a massive undertaken by the industry.
"The next few days are all about bedding down the necessary operational processes as we finalise the transition and move to a more business as usual work cycle and have a rest. There are lots of bleary eyes at Indue," he said.
Craig Kennedy, managing director of Cuscal, a processor that has connected 40 bank and credit union brands to the NPP (two-thirds of all bank brands involved so far) emphasised the competitive aspects for banks of all sizes in realising "a landmark day for banking and payments in Australia."
Talking to his base, Kennedy said: "no matter how large or small your financial institution is, it can give you the latest and greatest payment innovations just as quickly as the biggest banks in Australia."
Craig McMahon, chief operations officer at Teachers Mutual Bank, was one of a range of industry mutual sector executives to share views on an uncomplicated launch, at least for those mutual ADIs always determined to be there at the outset of PayID.
"Day one is going very well, we're very happy with what's been happening," McMahon said.
"We've got members transacting and got good registration numbers," he said.
Mark Genovese, CEO of Unity Bank said, "from our perspective, it's working."
Genovese played down the nuisance value of so many key banking names being missing from PayID and the NPP at this stage.
"From our members' perspective, the NPP is a value add," he said.
"There's no great queue of members asking for this system.
"If this [the absence of the likes of ANZ, NAB and St George] goes on for days and weeks, it will be frustrating. Our expectation is that the banks that said they would there, will be there," he said.