A retail payments hub could serve as a central database of "address" information for payees and also handle the delivery of better remittance information, the head of payments policy at the Reserve Bank of Australia said.Tony Richards yesterday spoke at an industry conference to outline the views of the RBA's Payments System Board on innovation, a talk that largely surveyed the themes of a paper released two weeks ago by the board.Richards emphasis a couple of themes.One was the PSB's view that a proposed payments hub may be best operated as a utility and reiterated the RBA's willingness to invest in this hub.The RBA proposes that the payments hub replace the present network of bilateral connections. It argues that a hub will help speed up payments, with the RBA aiming to guide the industry to deliver genuine real time payments by the end of 2016."Real time messaging should logically be provided by a payments messaging hub," Richards said.He said this hub "may also hold the identifiers [such as mobile phone numbers] and possibly supply remittance data."Richards also elaborated on the PSB's view of the reform of the Australian Payments Clearing Association.He said APCA would need more independent directors who were "goal oriented" and the board should not be dominated by any interest. At present banks are the major force on the APCA board.Richards said if APCA reformed in the manner that the RBA proposed then the Payments System Board was "prepared to have regular consultations with that body."