New Payments Platform (NPP)
More info
- Released
- 2018
- Owner
- Australian Payments Plus
- Type
- Instant payment system
- Website
- nppa.com.au
Australia's round-the-clock instant account payment infrastructure, built on ISO 20022 and letting a phone number stand in for an account.
Until 2018, Australian transfers moved in batches through the old BECS system, and a payment sent on a Friday afternoon might turn up on Tuesday. The NPP went live in February 2018 after the Reserve Bank leaned on a consortium of banks to build something faster. Each payment settles individually against the central bank within seconds.
Two details set it apart from older schemes. The message format is ISO 20022, which leaves room for long remittance text instead of a cryptic 18-character line. And PayID lets a payee register a mobile number, email address or business number as an alias for the account. Services such as Osko and PayTo run on top, and since 2022 the operator has been part of Australian Payments Plus alongside eftpos.