The New Payments Platform
The New Payments Platform [NPP] is Australia’s real-time account-to-account [A2A] payments infrastructure.
Faster, smarter payments
The New Payments Platform [NPP] was developed via industry collaboration, and enables Australian consumers, businesses and government agencies to make digital payments in real-time at any time. It facilitates the clearing and settlement of real-time, data-rich payments for the Australian digital economy.
NPP Australia [NPPA] is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus, and is responsible for maintaining and developing NPP infrastructure to ensure it meets Australia's real-time payments needs.
Payments Infrastructure for the Future
Safety & Security
The NPP was built with speed, safety and security in mind. NPP infrastructure is certified to the highest data security standards and monitored 24/7-365.
PayTo payment agreements are presented in a customer’s internet or mobile banking for authorisation. Likewise, PayID offers identity verification, and a payee confirmation step so payers know they're paying the right person.
NPP Payment Solutions by Zepto
COLLECT Payments in Real Time
PayTo is a modern way for businesses to collect payments from their customers’ bank accounts and have them settle in real time, all the time. It's sometimes described as an always-on, instant direct debit. But we think it's much more than that. Get to know PayTo more HERE.
Zepto is a directly Connected Institution [CI] on the NPP for PayTo.
RECEIVE Payments in Real Time
Enterprise PayID is Zepto’s flagship instant-funds transfer solution. It supercharges millions of transactions each day with the unique capability to activate thousands of PayIDs instantaneously.
Zepto merchant customers can create a unique PayID for every customer to facilitate instant, easy payments and accurate, automated reconciliation. Get to know Zepto's PayID capabilities HERE.
PAYOUT & Disburse in Real Time
With Zepto’s low cost, high speed, resilient NPP payment solutions, businesses can configure high-volume, time-critical, end-to-end payment flows that flex & scale. When complex enterprise payment flows are at play, every zeptosecond counts.
"BECS is not able to send complete remittance information. As many of you know, the limited number of characters stems from the number of characters that could be carried on a punch card! Decades on, this is no longer fit for purpose. It prevents automating the reconciliation of payments and makes it harder to screen for financial crimes. The NPP uses the data-rich ISO 20022 messaging format, which is the new global standard for payments systems."Michele Bullock RBA Governor at the AusPayNet Summit in December 2023
"We are delighted to welcome Zepto onboard as our first Connected Institution on the NPP. This is a significant achievement and testimony to the hard work and dedication of the Zepto team in getting to this major milestone. Meeting the technical connectivity and security requirements to connect to the NPP is not an easy undertaking, and is not intended to be, given the need to ensure the necessary safeguards required to operate a real-time payments system."Katrina Stuart General Manager Business Payments, Australian Payments Plus
"BECS is not able to send complete remittance information. As many of you know, the limited number of characters stems from the number of characters that could be carried on a punch card! Decades on, this is no longer fit for purpose. It prevents automating the reconciliation of payments and makes it harder to screen for financial crimes. The NPP uses the data-rich ISO 20022 messaging format, which is the new global standard for payments systems."Michele Bullock RBA Governor at the AusPayNet Summit in December 2023
"We are delighted to welcome Zepto onboard as our first Connected Institution on the NPP. This is a significant achievement and testimony to the hard work and dedication of the Zepto team in getting to this major milestone. Meeting the technical connectivity and security requirements to connect to the NPP is not an easy undertaking, and is not intended to be, given the need to ensure the necessary safeguards required to operate a real-time payments system."Katrina Stuart General Manager Business Payments, Australian Payments Plus
Features and Benefits of the NPP
Real-Time Payment & Settlement
The NPP enables real-time clearing and settlement of account-to-account [or pay-by-bank] transactions. This is equally applicable to simple transactions and funds transfers, as well as complex enterprise payment flows.
It's Always On
The NPP operates 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. Yes, even at 3.00am on Good Friday. No 'business days only' impediments here, just the fast, free-flow of funds that businesses need, and the modern payment experiences their customers expect.
Data-Rich Transfers
NPP enables the inclusion of much more data with each transaction. More detailed information accompanying every payment can facilitate easier invoice reconciliation and record-keeping. After all, you should be focused on growing your business, not your back office.
Regulation & Governance
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian Payments Plus, NPP Australia is governed by the Board of Australian Payments Plus. Its operations are also guided by a number of committees with broad representation from 14 Participants.
NPP Mandatory Compliance Requirements and Determinations can be found HERE.
Accessibility
The New Payments Platform is accessible to both consumers and businesses via participating financial institutions. This wide accessibility ensures that a large portion of the Australian population can benefit from the services offered by the NPP.
Innovation & Competition
The NPP is designed to be fast, flexible, and to support innovation in payments and financial services. A feature of the NPP is its open access framework which allows for financial institutions and fintechs like Zepto to connect to the platform. This fosters the type of competition and innovation that can deliver game-changing experiences to businesses and their customers alike.
NPP Need-To-Know
What are the advantages of NPP payments?
NPP payments are near instant, data-rich and can be made at any hour of the day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. Operating at the speed of the digital economy and our online lives, they deliver real-time digital payments experience consumers expect, and the efficiencies that business needs.
As NPP payments can process, settle and reconcile in seconds, recipients can have immediate use of funds improving cash flow.
NPP payments can carry up to 280 characters of reference text for a better customer experience.
They can be cost effective, too, compared to other payment methods.
Learn more HERE.
How can organisations connect to the NPP?
There are many different ways organisations can access the NPP, including:
- Participant
- Settlement Participant
- Identified Institution
- Connected Institution
- Overlay Service Provider
- More here.
How is Zepto connected to the NPP?
Zepto is connected to the real-time payment rails of the NPP in two ways:
> Directly connected as a Connected Institution [CI] for PayTo.
> Wholesale access to the NPP as an NPP Participant.
Why choose Zepto for NPP payments?
As the first non-authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) approved to connect directly to the NPP as a ‘Connected Institution’ for PayTo, Zepto is a trusted payments infrastructure player and a pioneering force in modernising payment experiences.
Zepto powers payments for numerous large enterprises attracted to our blend of fintech agility, accessibility and support underpinned by enterprise grade infrastructure that delivers extensibility, security and stability.
Zepto sits at the intersection of real-time payments and data, with a clear view of "what's possible" when it comes to real-time, account-to-account payments for enterprise.
We firmly believe that the business battles of tomorrow will be won with payments technology that's available today.
How reliable is Zepto's API for NPP payments?
Click HERE for a real-time view of our API status and uptime.
Built as a RESTful API using JSON as its data-interchange format, Zepto's API is aligned to ISO 20022 enabling standardisation, automation, improved reporting and carriage of data-rich payments, all of which are supported by the ISO 20022 messaging standard.
Zepto is proudly ISO/IEC 27001 certified for information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection. Read more about the Zepto platform HERE.
Can NPP payments improve customer experience?
We believe great customer experience is everything, and that NPP payments can deepen the customer-merchant relationship, drive trust, loyalty and elevate customer experience.
Unencumbered by legacy technology and thinking, Zepto has built a Financial Cloud Service that sits atop an interchangeable orchestration layer of payment and data channels.
That means no 'legacy', and no batch processing. Just modern enterprise-grade payment infrastructure designed to meet modern customer expectations of the real-time, digital economy.