NPP takes off

John Kavanagh

Activity on the New Payments Platform has taken off in recent months, as the Osko overlay becomes an established part of the payments system.

According to the latest Reserve Bank payments data, the value of payments on the NPP was A$51.8 billion in June, of which $48.1 billion was transacted using Osko.

NPP payments jumped by more than $10 billion in June, compared with the previous month, and by 218 per cent over the 12 months to June.

NPP Australia reported last month that five million PayIDs have been registered by Australian consumers, allowing them to receive payments using a range of identifiers, including phone number, email address, business name or ABN.

In the credit and charge card market, after appearing to be collapsing a few months ago spending on personal credit cards has recovered. But the steady reduction in balances accruing on credit cards continues unabated.

Spending on personal credit and charge cards was worth $20.1 billion in June – up from $16.7 billion in May and $14.7 billion in April. That is a 36.7 per cent pickup in three months.

The April figure was the lowest for personal credit and charge cards since 2010, which prompted some commentators to suggest that one response to the pandemic was that consumers were cutting up their cards.

That is obviously not the case but what consumers are doing is avoiding revolving balances. The value of personal credit and charge card balances accruing interest was $22.7 billion in June, the lowest level since 2005. The value of balances accruing interest fell 22.2 per cent over the 12 months to June.

Spending on commercial credit and charge cards has also picked up - from a low of $3.9 billion in April to $4.7 billion in June.

As with personal cards, balances accruing interest on commercial cards have been falling steadily. The current level of $1.05 billion is the lowest level since 2010.

Spending on debit cards was worth $33.4 billion in June – the highest value recorded in the data series.