Labor Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said payments infrastructure would be a primary focus for Labor policy makers in financial services if the party wins government, given the rapidity with which consumers are moving away from cash payments.
“Apart from the New Payment Platform that was introduced in 2018, much of the regulatory architecture governing payments was crated decades ago. It predates the significant innovations in the sector like mobile payments.” Chalmers told delegates at the Australian Banking Association conference in Sydney on Friday.
“We want to make sure payments regulation facilitates new and emerging systems being part of the regulatory structure.
“We’ll be monitoring the ACCC’s investigation of ApplePay closely. We know there are concerns around buy now pay later. We are happy to swap views on least cost routing.”
He did not offer any detailed assessment of last year’s Review of the Australian Payments System.
More generally, Chalmers said the defining economic issues for Australia as it comes out of COVID are rising inflation, falling real wages and skills shortages.
He said he was keen to see the Hayne royal commission recommendations bedded down, so that the industry could digest it and progress.
“We want to maximise confidence in the industry and move on,” he said.