Westpac on a productivity drive

Westpac appears to have upgraded "productivity" as a business goal and downgraded strategy in changes to senior management announced yesterday. read more

Drawn-out transition to revised EFT code

Banks and payment providers will have until March 2013 to conform to the revised code of conduct relating to what the industry and regulators have ill-advisedly resolved to refer to as "ePayments". read more

Executive rotation at CBA

The background of Commonwealth Bank's new head of strategy, Robert Jesudason, may stir up speculation about a planned escalation of the bank's investment in financial services in Asia. read more

Flexible commencement date for PPSR

The Attorney-General's Department yesterday set a formal commencement date of  January 30, 2012 for the Personal Property Securities Register. However, an even later commencement date seems lik.. read more

SWIFT seeks stake in payments renovation

The case for adapting the mechanisms used for high-value payments to process low value and consumer payments was one topic addressed in some industry submissions to the Reserve Bank of Australia's r.. read more

Innovation agenda crowded enough for some banks

Some banks want time, as long as 10 years, to adapt their core systems and prepare for any future collaboration on payments systems - a time-frame bound to encourage alternative payment providers in.. read more

Global payments standard divides banks

The merit of shifting, perhaps quickly, to a modern standard for payment messages and otherwise improving the content of the messages sent by banks with payments is a topic that attracted two varyin.. read more

Banks wedded to batch payments

Banks prefer to shift to periodic, though more frequent, payments for the bulk of their customer base in preference to any shift to "real time" payments, submissions to the RBA's innovation review s.. read more