NPP may feast on past platforms

At least one Australian bank is planning for the demise of two venerable payments systems once the New Payments Platform is up and running.

The Real Time Gross Settlement system and the Bulk Electronic Clearing System will end up as museum pieces if the vision of one ANZ executive comes to pass.

"The policy of the Australian Payments Council is that when you build a new payments system you shut one down," Paul Inglis, head of payments at ANZ, told a panel at the Cards and Payments conference in Melbourne yesterday.

The Bank Interchange and Transfer System was bypassed steadily once BECS and RTGS were entrenched, Inglis pointed out.

RTGS drew in more volume than the payments system it superceded.

Inglis expects the NPP to attract new volume as well.

Britain's Faster Payments platform has had a similar impact on batch payments and real time payments in that market over recent years, Chris Hamilton, CEO of the Australian Payments Clearing Association, said.